
Class 
Book ♦- 



Author 



Title - 



s O Li Cj }^^ Imprint 



v\ — .wyyf-M. <iPO 



m 



TBE 
MYTHOLOGIC CHRlSlj 

OR 

CHRISTIANITY AS IT IS, 



PRINTED FOR 
P, FENELON METHROSE, Jb. 



KEW TORTC 

t8S1. 



^ 



THE 
MTTHOLOGIC CHRIST, 

OR 

CHRISTIANITY AS IT IS. 




PRINTED FOR 
P. FENELON METHROSE, Je, 



NEW YORK 









NO RIGHTS RESERVED. 

To that World of Xatnro's from which Thoughti 8prill| 
1 thwfi return them. 



Y. 

The silence of History's coktankous ios(.vk. 

Nearly nineteen obscuring centuries ago, m the haiij;ht 
jest years of imperial Rome then radiant In the elTulgence 
rif a near-to-zenith glory soon destined to decline amid the 
obnubilations of ignominy and ill-fame ; in the palmy days 
when the all-powerful scepter of the conquering Cj^^sarn so 
awed the greater portion of the then known world as to clant) 
the doors of the Temple of Janus in unusual Peace : we are 
fcold that a Man, a Son of God, a man God, Ghost and him- 
self in the same body; entered this world from a virgin's 
womb (miraculously nnpregnated by the Almighty) for the 
self-avowed and remarkable purpose of assuming and expi- 
ating the God-inflicted-and implanted sins of humankind. 

Not by Tradition's oft confusing tongue are the legends 
told to us of this wondrous birth, this heaven-born mission, 
bhis Triad-Man. Not by History's more veritafe^e pages ; oy 
fche hieroglyph graven on the pillar of stone, OTrithe cunei- 
form character sun-baked in the tile of clay. 

But by the strange, incredible, conflicting we-know-not- 
svhat writings (?) of a quartet of men said to be contempora- 
leouswith and disciples of the **divine one;" men who 
hemselves stand dimly forth like pale unrealities against a 
featureless background of chill and repellant mysticism 
farmed not into attractive beauty by Truth's artist touch. 
VIen without, historians, biographers, or delineators extant 
n their own reputed century— whose original manuscripts 
cannot be found-^who left no traces (earnest , peripatetic 
;eachers though their gospels say) of their enthusiast per- 
lonalities in an observant and satiric age when Juvknal 
)ould deal a stroke withwifi* keen ^tylus-at pflutton Pollio 
nd Wartiai Ijeunch the dart of pointecfcfepig^ryin -it o^f^e^? 



trivial as drunken Fuscus— who, otherwise, seem lo have 
lived and died "Unwept, unhonored and unsung.'* 

The writings fathered on these unsubstantial four present 
a weird symposium of miracle-laden legends concerning 
"Christ;" preposterous tales which Countess d'Aunoy or 
Rudolph Raspe might have fitly told ; narrations which any 
intelligent and educated youth whose mental vision is not 
blasted by Religion's evil eye — whose reason-seat remains 
undrugged by Faith's narcotic draught— would at once re- 
ject, even as Atahualpa cast down the voiceless Bible, with 
contemptuous unbelief; dissonant stories and sermons on 
a ludicrous par with the dateless, fragmentary and irrecon- 
cilable Acts of the Apostles. 

These Christ-recording four : Matthew, Mark, I^uke and 
John; apocryphal themselves — yetaccepted by the priests 
as veritable historians of the doings of Jesus Christ! have 
had woven for them under the dubious glamor of their phan- 
tom unsubstantiality a wandering, intricate, fantastical web 
of Hindu, Chaldeic and Grecian mythologic lore, artfully re- 
touched to snare the fancy of the votaries of a^ew cult on 
whom a crafty clergy dared not impose too much of novelty 
jn the maze of change, 

Hearken to the story that to us is told! Marvellously 
born, unpretentiously reared in recurring peril for nearly 
thirty years, a Messiah appears in the narrow limits of un- 
important Palestine, to fulfil a predestined and universal 
mission. He performs miracle after miracle, cures the in- 
curable, re-animates the dead, satiates the hunger of thous- 
ands with what can be carried in the hands of a single man^ 
controverts and controls the elements, and falling at last a 
victim to the unbelief and intolerance of the Roman gov- 
ernment in Jerusalem through the foretold treachery of a 
false disciple is ignominiously crucified between two mal- 
efactors, arises in mortal semblance from the grave and in: 
.ipectacular sequence to a laconic peroration ascends '*totb© 
b«aven from whence he came." 

Thus (briefly) runs the tale ! Incredible as it is, how muck 



inoie liubehevable is it rendered by the contradiciory rela- 
tions ol the lour haloed <!hroni('lers credited with having 
garnered up the sayings and doings of their 'Master," and 
what are our reflections when — on attentively examining 
these "infallible Gospels" thus bequeathed to us — we find 
a bewildering tangle of 460 visible errors, antagonisms and 
.absolute contradictions of what was said to have taken place 
in the various scenes and localities where the wonderful 
Jeaus posed as princiipal actor ; with, perhaps, many more to 
l)e sifted out — ^an excellent exercise for the understanding 
and a surpassing exorcisor of the Christian and kindred su- 
perstitions that may have gained Thought-enfeebling ascen-^ 
daney over the human intellect, 

Where are the proofs of Christ's existence? Where ! 

AVkGK Jesus was said to be astonishing and convulsing the 
littlenjiitieainthe Roman province of Palestine, Justus the 
historranaud Thilo the: prblific religious writer lived not 
far away. But Justus wrote not one word about the marvels 
wrought in his days else Photiu&would have acquainted us 
with the fact; and PhU/^v^eyntlite send verbose, — Philo of the 
*'logos" who-wastjlieasuth^rof such a work as "De Vita Con= 
templata — " and T/ho*:wasjborn some 20 years before Christ, 
keeps dreary silence as to'the marvels and the Man ! 

But Phlio's?<work, above quoted, is not mute on another 
and most 'illuminating (and, up to now. ignored) subjects 
that a reMgious sect'Vhaving the tenets, rites, priests an<l 
chairches of the Christians existed in Egypt long before the 
Chsrist was born ! Here I cannot neglect answering a very 
gross misrepresentation as to the "De Vita" made in "Cham- 
bers' Lib. of Universal Knowl. (v. 539.) just published : that 
the work was "written about three centuries after Philo's 
death [a dV50?] by a Christian monk as a panegyric on ascet- 
ic monachhmi'" "Quod Omnis" and Josephus' "Antique 
ties" are also doubted and — afterwards referred to! 

Inhere is no reason to disbelieve Josephus' clear account, 
[gee " Antiq." xv, io, xviii. 3.) Pliny (Nat. Hist. v. 17.) refers 
to^tiije JKesenaa^Soliiius corroborates Philo, "Matthew" x^iaa 



<li>^4en?«it>h in it ^lit. JU.i unU "Liik«" at tht^ h»-^ir»nifij^ uf the 
prelude to h'rt S.VUapfiitUunil'fegH^m hteOnwf)^! w.'ij* mriiU- IroMi 

what "manyhaii taken in hand to «#t forth ifl «=>rcit'f," 

FiU!4ebiaj4 (,!*tti.noh, un?ii3rupuloui^ (Wl'encler of th§ fauh!) 
who \^:ifi boi'li ili the Hrd., khd Wfute In thH Uftrl^v jmn nf the 
•ith., I't'ntury at^u^pt^ and quotfes •'D© Vita" (bk. li. eh. !♦*,> 
"('hfir4cU»u4 waf^ tho Rftutent TlierapratfH and our ^^o^spels 
^\'of^ of thaif writing." vii. V?,) "TharHpeut" i^ tht^ (iri'tk 
for the fcJj^ypti^h "K>iS€inei^." each mian?*! one who li^nU. 
AhiiUarujiu-* In hl4 "Ma^i/.lne ut Myot^r'©^" «!»eri))Ms it to- 
Vhilu; Hif^iUKii p^.AHi^ that U wag oompoaed inih« rtn^n; 
of Au^u^tu4, [n. t!. 4;i tu A. I). 14] ("Ili*«toire di?)i JiUfs," ij. i'h. 
2<»..i M Mhel^n %h)i^A wn diubt it^ authopMhtp '']v'cl«». Hl'^t/'" 
i. 111!', et ^kH[ , .^e« ttl Mu 1 and 3?^ and nytthfr do \onge, lh*ti*t- 
Bt'h und miny utlier tOiri-itian >*(?holap«, Thtjri'i'ortj, a faulti- 
er UkH thrt H'Vit >r of Chambsfi' artiuU may wt?ll ;?o hide hi^ 
difhihl^^hud hi*ad! 

Now I) 'inj« wt^ Jo!i*ephu9, whiUiolm Governor of CJalliloe 
andohltif lU'.fiAwiVii hUtoi'Uvn^upon theatanrt. What u hl# 
te^itlhiony? A rulur, a writer, a koen o'oser.ver, borxj bm h» 
yparor two afcur rJu? aUfe^t^d ornolfiXlon— one who»« oeurly 
all-seeih}^ oye und mind oomppehondod almoat rv^-rythtRg 
of thfe slighiuvjt (ions^tjUin^t'e a-jipcrtaininj^ to nu-r. xnaiin^r!*, 
thotij^ht, or thin^"* wy vmi imaginu to have taken pUccMn 
I'ait'Stine in T(i yw*rM rynord of doln^;^ there; giving uxi en- 
tire \vA^V! to the mintiv'fedi^ of nomei inslgnitieautrogut'— not 
a Word has he to .<ayol ( hriflt thfeBword-Bringor; Chri-itih^ 
Wohdwr-Wt^rkcr; Christ the Apotheoalzed, Herod-vioUni, 
who«ie )>,\«*Ninjj evoked tha darkneas^of ni^tsnd the rreniori 
of earth uiidwhof^^ disulplea spread everyw^re with tht- j.oal 
of ehthUMiaat^ thy ©reed of th© ♦•Maiter?" 

I ^ay "not one word" biuaus© tho three paf^sagosmcr with 
in- ''Antiquities" today vvere not in the original edition of 
the work, f onMiler that in bk. xvUi. eh. 8. § 3: it is a brief, 
abrnptly-oc(uirfih|j; history of ,le^us; *'A vfiiiie roan if it be 
T'i^ht to call iiiii) a man" who "wai ChrUt.*" Ufthodoi Jo- 



lephuii acknowledging Jesns ! The mind of man, potent to 
penetrate into the motives and artifices of his designing 
fellows, may readily detect the outrageous forgery there 
crudely perpetrated. Warburton, Faber, Gibbon, Farrar, 
others— all exclaim "Interpolation !" they coi|ld not be hon- 
•standdo less. Why, during two centuries and more of 
learned research and fierce debate, are the most pious, the 
more renowned, the mass of the erudite, of the christian 
flcholars interested in contirming this so-called testimony 
of the "Livyof the Jews,'* forced to reject— nay, to destroy 
it? Scaliger, Gronovius, Heinsius, Ittigius, Blondel , E. and 
D, Reuss, Bradley, et al. (I have counted 108 of them) whaS 
an array of names could be martialled on this page! why do 
they all refuse to accept a passage invaluable, were it but 
authenticated, to their Church? Because not one of more 
than two dozen Fathers of the 1st. 2nd. and 3rd. centuries 
<up to the time of Eusebius) refers to this pregnant passage 
Although they knew of, and many quoted from, the works of 
Josephus. The zealous Origen,, the bigoted Tertullian, the 
enthusiast Justin Martyr— establishing the Faith, arguing 
down heresy— avail themselves not of a resistless weapon! 
it is left for the artful and unscrupulous Eusebius to forqe 
and turn against his skeptic foes. Read in "Hist. Eccles't. 
Lib." i. ch. 11, of his joy at the "discovery!" 

It is Faber who intimates that Eusebius was the forger. 

The devout Lardner advanced nine reasons for rejecting 
the passage; among them: "It interrupts the narrative" 
(§2 connects perfectly %ith §4) ; "The language in quite chris- 
tiian," (especially for a Jew so orthodox as Josephus— A be- 
liever in the faith of JMtoSes and Abraham if there ever was 
a true one, yet there made to contradict hia known profes- 
sions!): "Crysostom, Fhotius [and ottiers] do not ({uote it" 

The Rev. H, Giles says . "The passage is ah ill set jewel con- 
trasting inharmoniously with all around." (Christ, llecords.) 
How gladly would Origen, had the ^em been set in his era, 
have flashed its rays in the eyes of C (l^^us (Contra; (V'lrtus.) 

The fact remains : that a more ^iti>pid. bungling attempt 



(notwithstanding Gibbon^ to impose this interpolation '*f 
fiome criminal christian upon us for the true text of Joaepb 
us cannot be conceived ! It is the mountain of prolixity and 
consistency laboring to give birth to a mouse of brevity and 
irrelevancy. Maladroitly sandwiched in between §2, which 
describes a bloody revolution, and §4, properly following §2 
with an account of -'another sad calamity" it can ouly serve 
to awaken contempt and pity for the nameless trickster. 

The second passage occurs lu bk. xx. ch. 9. §1 "James the 
brother of Jesus who was called Christ;" but the last four 
words of this are admitted to be interpolated, and as to all 
the others, deprived of these they have no significance, the 
name Jesus being of very frequent occurrence among Jews 
as may be seen by anyone who looks through the books of 
Josephus. So we find here the work of another christian 
hand whose cunning hath over-reached itself! 

The third passage, merely concerning John the Baptist, is 
conceded to be as false as the two before-mentioned. In it 
we are informed that Herod has John executed at Ma cherus 
a place not under his rule and situated in Arabia Petrae! 
the disposition of the article is chronologically irreconcila- 
ble and the entire tale is at variance with the beliefs and 
doings of the age it is referred to, besides being incompat- 
ible with what the bible portrays of the evangelist and the 
"historian relates of the tetrarch. 

Tacitus, author of the elegantly written "Annales" (A D 
107 ?) comes next under consideration. Of his work but one 
M S, and that a copy reputed to have been made in the 8th. 
century, is extant, In bk, xv. §54. of this copy Tacitus ia 
made to tell us of -'a people who were abhorred for their 
crimes" "upon whom Nero inflicted exquisite punishment" 
who were "filthy enemies of mankind" "commonly known 
by the name of Christians" [an enviable characterization! 
doubtless introduced to lend substantiation to the forged 
entr>'] "They had their name from Christus who, in Tiberias' 
reign, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, pro- 
curator." The torture and death of Christians for burning 



cover to vo^et aiul then answer thin ([iie8i.i;.n: Is it likely 
tbat such;;, naorbid, contrary-to-style narraMt>o could tonu 
part of the tnie text of that historian? 

Not a Father of the Church quotes the article — not Or- 
igCD; not evenTertullian who had read Tacitus. Nor Huse- 
Dius nor Clement, laborious (collators of all then-known allu- 
sions to Christ. And the falsity of this article is further 
proven by its location of Nero in a city wherein the subse- 
quent text unmistakably shows he was not— by its vilifica- 
tion of his character who is exonorated directly by Melito 
(Apol. to Antoninus) and indirectly by the Scriptures (I Pe- 
ter iii. 15)and by its controversion of Seutonius who uncom- 
proniising;ly states that that emperor never sacrificed the 
Mves of human beings in public entertainments. As the 
entire relation stands discordant and alone amid the polish- 
ed text of a refined historian whose taste revolted at trac- 
ing sanguinary pictures with his stylus, we must simply in- 
fer in tliis one copy of a copy made six centuries after tha 
era of the author of the original and remaining in the pos- 
session of a Venetian Christian, unquoted by christians for 
1400 years ; tb e commision of forgery where forgery was easy. 

Next, chronologically, we have Seutonius (115 a d) relate 
in his "Life of Nero" " A race of men of a new and maleti- 
ent superstition, called Christians, were afflicted with pun- 
ishment" and in that of "Claudius :" "The Jews who, urged 
byChresto, were riotous when exjpelled from Rome." So! 
Christ came to Rome after his resurrection to incite sedition 
there ! I need say no mocre, ei5:c^t to remark (en passant) 
that "Chresto" was probably a corruption of "Chrestus," old 
Greek for "good" and none of the Fathers pretends that the 
word "Christiaai" was derived in any way from Ohrist (con- 
eult Clement, Theophilus, TertuUian and Martyr.) 

Then FliTiy Jr, in a letter to Trajan (Plin. Epist. Ixx. ch 10, 
let. 97) relates how he persecuted all ranks and ages of a sect: 
professing chastity and integrity and tortured two women/ 
Und^r mild Trajan— tolerant Rome ! Mishandling women I 



Not :iii iji<iuii\ iDt.u iht'.h'iius aimounci'd :.r tiir-ir orip;ina- 
tor: into his ;»upernatural source; his life; his myster:ou9 
doint^.^; his !«pectacular death ! Only "Christo," who miirht 
have been Chrishna, Apollo— who knows wha* else? Gibbon 
comments on this letter, which isfpresent in but oseM S of 
Pliny: "A very curious epistle!" Amen! 

Ot the same kidney is the letter of Tiberias, addre«ised to 
Truya-n ^Cotel. Patr. Apost. ii. l'^2.) wherein the writer tella 
abo>U the destruction of christians according to ihe ordera 
of his hiipf rial master. 

Forgeries all ! born of a barbaric, ignorant ape when such 
Milan ien were trifling in view df th* robbery, lu>n and mur- 
<ler thfTi appallingly rife and rampant. \ aluolcis. as evi- 
dences of Jesus ! Omnipotent Ronue, ever intiDiately weav- 
ing together the many threads of her web of empire— ever 
minutely informed as to all occurretices however seemingly 
trivial, by innumerable reports emanatingfrom theofficiaU 
of each componentpart— ever watchful, repressive, Mf«rn; 
thoujirh t<»lerant and just— presents not one aatbeiitic n'oortt 
relating lo t -is '*Son of God" who was con vulsing.Judeti ftnd 
Gallilee, atiricting the notice of Herod and arou.vin^r the 
indigiarion of the high priests! Not one edict .ij^ui st hig 
active an«* f ^ntic followers in Palestine! RonifiTi Isvv ig- 
nored? Roman dls 'inline subverted? Roma noDicialM in dif- 
ferent'. No : Pcrsocutinn was nil. Not a lire of (hi- I'oipuA 
Juris hurls denunciatitn ( rdo< m at the chri.stian. Evfn 
of the narly Fathers, Tertullian alone sa\3: "Xero wag thp 
first to use the sanguinary sword of the emperors against 
the aris n<r sect in Rome . . . Name an KD;r»eri>r of under- 
standing down to this reign [Severusj wh«> hhA persecuted 
the rhrrti.^TB* (Apologia, ch. v.) Ag:jnfct lum wc can 
oppo^ Mplito: "Ferseciition which waj» nev«rr rtrre against 
the plons before" (Ai>ol. to Ant/)ninuKi an«» l*u%i}, who^eal* 
ieged speech and unmolested doings in Nero's: time, -iboiiKi 
be road by pversone (Acts, txviii. '51. Rowi, xtii. .'^,> 

I>is>in?^s wo now. briefly, the epistle of A drain u^ Sfn'i:ill. 
(A.i).1..4 in Ji-i^n.ng christian bish<'pcj and pret«'>ytera; tfid 



of iioul jiiipcrior ;<• a > '»! stina y 1 R^r'i* < hriMtiau'*;' i^n-l 
the ^'evidence" vf Lurhin, that: "Hf wl nm the Chrn+^iiiS 
adore wa^ a Spirit i^rucilied" '. i*eri>renu3) and that "TEfrj la- 
ther, aon and spirit are ;) in 1 an 1 1 in 3" (Phiiopatrs-s -^ .- r 
It profits us not to Rcriously tak^^ up what the Churci > w - 
dom casts hopelessly aside ! Vie have reached the en* ^f 
pafran ''evidence" — such as it has been made to re! 

Formidably arra ye dag;vmst these the forged, the laij^.tai^ 
doubtful— we find the nuiie inipre33ivenej»s, the s.ij;5iiilicivr. 
silence, of Plutarch in his essays on Ljfy .t*.in Snu Wornhir 
and in his numerous and }iroli>Lbio&ra^hies: the ^niightt; • 
ing i^i^orauce <;f Sent- fa, who, evolving the thi*ory ot**^he 
Pert'cci -Man" a bein^ wiio aj pears. buft\-rs an . di ^ urn . ,, 
and for mankind, neither mentions Christ, iHsci jles. u •'- 
TesranjfTi'-; rcferrinj:; lo the Jews, however— as '.m xu-v\ 
sl'd race!" 

Silent, also, is .Martial who disdained not to strike vv^:^ ili-, 
keen ed^ce of epigram the mediocre of his times : and Juve 
nal bitin^c with satiric venom even those of obscurer ori^rin. 
ADd refined Persius and half-serious Lucian, writer* la lik« 
vein. Of fe^eographers: theobaervant Pausanius, theob-ivurti 
Ptolemy, the original Mela, and the voluminons strab«>--i»' 
historians: impartii^I Arrian, diffuse ^Eliou, teri«eTyrias, vt- 
udite bio Cassias, lucid Appian, va^ue .lastin. warlike i'at- 
ercuUis and inaccurate C'urtius — ot philosophers: lar^ >*^'u^c 
Laertius.sapient Pliny senior, and moral Epictctus — r^ty*'^-**^ 
tragic iEsopus, obscene Petronius, ambitious Sitatiu^.aitVc- 
ted Siliua, declamatory Caius Flaccusand the two inooakit j.nti 
Lucans— and of teachers: eloquent Quintillian, soi»hiKti'-iul 
Celsussnd travelled Apolloniusof Tyana— not one breathed 
8o much as tbe name of Jesus the Christ! 'Iheon. Pli'lvi.':or, 
Lonji:inu« and Dio Prusius remainasuncommuniraUve c.a 
the intere-nn^ subject aw the rest. 

L;!-.tU' : the < ntAfc>\y.y>, sjnW: to have been the "dreurafc. ■ . 
the f«'l(,rr refugei^i thes-iVA:.>^lyhuntcdadher»'ntsoiO" :r- 

Oisrcg irdin^ :ho a«i.i.e<l' fuct that >v,' c.-.ilioc uati5'*i-i-* 



16 

constriu'tion furth<'r l>ack tuan 12') a n.— tl i^ impoHsible 
to point U) one veritable trace of anything relating to Christ 
•on their vast interiors. In vain all the artifice, conjecture 
.and holy ze:»l of antiq larian and of scholaHy resource — all 
(has been impotent to torture out of gravured, scrawled, or 
painted epitaph ; emblematic picture-tracing: or obscurely 
written phrase, along 800 miles of passages, a single, brief, 
unequivocal word or sign announcing Christinn presence 
there during those fateful 1st. and 2nd. centuries. 

Not even the mark of the cross (a sign not oi C hrist's fol- 
lowers alone but of the Assyrians, the Phallists, the Aztecs, 
the Druids and the Serapians as well) appears therein — De 
Koesi's imaginings have been easily disproved by his more 
analytic christian brethren ; he, himself, admits by impli- 
cation, the feeble grounds on which he bases his opinions. 

The particular inscription he built eo. much upon has been 
relegated to the early part of the 2nd. century and, like the 
even more in(letina))le one "discovered" by Beck, utterly 
fails to meet the requirements of Christian critics. 

Enough : As we have now seen : History, Philosophy Sci- 
entje, Law and Poetry are eloquently du«}b smd theirs are 
the creating tongaen that give the substance and the life to 
vhat is without them but a phantom or a shadow, 



II. 

The Gospf.ls and their Obscure Derivation. 

Who and what, then, is alleged to tell us of a Christ and 
bis teaching-;? The Apostles thrc«igh the media of the in- 
spired Gospels! What are these Goffpels? Who are these 
Apostles? Can both withstand the arc-light of Scientific 
Reason shining vividly on the vaunteid sentences of the one 
»Dd the saintly persons of the otber? Let us see ! 

Jf you, my reader, were cGnsulting srwori^of reference on 



n 

an important subject— a recipe ; apoint of law ; a disease — 
would you not naturally wish to know the author's name, 
something of his iife, a little concerning his reliability, be- 
fore you unreservedly accepted the statements he put 
forth ? How much more essential that you should have this 
information when you sincerely believe the subject of such 
moment as to decide or dominate your future. 

But no one can tell you who were the authors of the Go»- 
pels. The names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are as un« 
informing as any pseudonym met^with in modern newpaper 
articles, the Church alone has attached these names to what 
are hopelessly anonymoua^ documents. 

The Rev. H. Giles (Chris; Records of Thought. 71.) was the 
first to show that Justyn Martyr though striving to establish 
Christ's divinity and liberally quoting from the Apocrypha 
but presenting not one extract from the four Gospels, did 
not record the names of any of the evangelical quartet. 

All the painstaking search of Christian theologians anx- 
ious to clutch at the tiniest straw of reality has failed in its 
purpose— not an apostle assumes the flesh of substance ! not 
a trace of them or of "their gospels" appears for 150 years 
after -'Christ's death !" The Early Fathers (of whom indeed 
no one can be sure— they having been selected out of 60 or 
70 of the 1st. century, knew naught of any. Davidson (Can- 
on of Bible, 122.) has to acknowledge that Papias "neither 
wanted" "nor knew of the existence of, inspired gospels." 

Of the four crumbling Gospel pillars on which the shape- 
less structure of Christianity Insecurely rests, there are no^ 
original manuscripts.. 0niy copies dating at the earliest 
from the 4th century. These are the Codex Bezoe, found 
iu Lyons, in 1562,. the Cbdfex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinai, 
all sadly at variance with those of later production. But 
they are not exceptions in this respect. Far from being so %' 
The various readings of the Bible could scarcely be detailed 
in a small volume : there are not only more than 1000 differ- 
ent TEXTS, but also 130,000 varied readings of the New Tegs* 
lament. How correct, the-n ,. arc tti^e-fe^ ancient copies? 



12 

We tlo not know when, wlierp. how. or ])y whom the<e oM 
COPIES were written! How valuable a scribe's copy would 
beasevidenceinoneof our courts of law today! And when 
we fnrther learn : 1 That there was a collection of 42 or 43 
additional gospels called Apocrypha, even more frn istical 
and contradictory than the revered four, that Holy Church, 
herself, has saved us the trouble of confuting by long ago 
repudiating them by a convenient little "miracle" wrought 
ci ring the seance of the Laodicean Council (a. d. 360) 

2 lasat the Early Fathers held these in as high esteem aa 
Che Church now does the f onr it continues to accept. 3 That 
the Apocrypha preceded the other gospels,— Bauer's belief 
is that they were written in the 2nd century. 4 That in 606 
all the gospels were revised— even Dr Lardner admits that 
the e&non was still unsettled in the middle of the 6th. cen- 
taury {Eccles, Hist. iii. 55 et seq.) 5 That Origen acknowledges 
emendations and coRREOTroNs were made by him without 
istny M. S. authority whatever. 6 That the Fathers subse- 
quent to the five earlier were at variance with each other. 
7 That they were bitterly bigoted and violently partisan, aa 
f:he fervid zeal with which they sought to annihilate the in- 
:Mel8 Celsus, Tryphon and Porphyry (thereby only rendering 
fche three immortal) in which attempt Truth received scant 
attention and, as Scaliger says : "Anything was introduced 
into the Scriptures that would serve their purpose;" sufflc- 
i«atly demonstrates. 8 That the Council of Trent in 1545 
waB'the first to eternally damn the soula of all who contu, 
snaciesly refused to accept the Scriptures as an entity; 15 
centKTiea having been occupied by Man in deciding to his 
€huBciti's satisfaction what was the real ( ?) word of God ! for 
prior doubt of which he had made thousands in this world 
•suffer the torments of the damned already. 9 That the 
jQumbers of Epistles, Acts and Gospels circulating daring 
sonce centuries "after Christ" from which amid much truly 
<;nnPtian rancour and disputation, 27 were winnowed out— 
perba3>s Paul's among the first— collection after collection 
w'.ifi^ ii^rtively made : Marcion in 150 aggregating about ten 



1^ 

ijf tbexn ana one unknown gospel of Christ, us of HrMA>i or- 
igin, (iicicreditingl:*aur8gObpel; Irenieus.^A. u. :^«k>; ,got to- 
gether 23 books one of which is now rejected,) and was lore- 
mr^'t to allude to the gynoptios. TheoDhilns bavins: touched 
apon the book of John ; and Origen in 230-240, collected, it 
is said, a large number from wincn the Church cast out six; 
when we realize all this, in what light do the goepels begin 
to appeal to u«? 

But more remains to be told. Hear Epiphaneus ask him- 
■elf: 'Were the Gospels drawn from the same foun tain- 
htad?" (On Heresy, li. 6.) and Bishop Faustus exclaim : "It 
is a fact that the Scriptures were not writings by Christ nor 
were they written by his apostles, but long subsequent to 
their time ... by unknown men who bestowed the names 
t)f the apostles upon these books and set forth that these 
with their errors and falsehoods were written according tp 
them; fearing that they [the writers] should incur suspicion 
of writing that of what they knew little or nothing.'* (Argu- 
ment with St Augustine, ii. ch. 1-2, xxxiii. ch. 3.) 

We do not have to accept the bishop's word for this, we 
need but turn to Luke (whose gospel some have ascribed to 
Paul) to find that wortliy admitting in the prelude (abaeht in 
some of the early Ikt S) that his gospel is only a compilation : 
*' Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in 
order a declaration of those things which are most surely 
believed among us . . . Evenasthey delivered them tons.'* 
Let me remark here that theonlyTbeophilusof note unto 
whom "Luke" could have addressed thi$ was he of Antioch 
a personage who lived in the last half of the 2nd ceuturt 5 
None of the four apostles has obliged us with his age, birth- 
place, patronymic— or, in short, anything leading lucidly to 
io his identification— of this more anon. 

St Jerome went so far as to admit that even the name of 
the translator who presented us with the Greek rendering 
of the lost original text of Matthew is unl^iijpiwn ! Caaeis|^ 
Michaelis to confess that divine inepiratlpQ. cannot attacb 
io such a productionn, and forcing: even T>avidBon to relin* 



u 

quish all attempts to trace the authorship to Matthew* (Inz. 
to New Test. 72.) Strauss (Leben Jesu, 51.) also points to 
the manifest compilation of *'Mark" which, says Davidson, 
(loc. cit.)is likewise an anonymous production. 

John remains— but John soon falls to the ground. A lit- 
tle reflection quickly tells us that it is extremely improbable 
that a rough, uncultured fisherman such as the compara- 
tively erudite "John" is said to have been, could have writ- 
ten a gospel — John the proletariat Jew of Bethsada meta- 
morphosed into John the pretentious evangelist, knew not 
where his native town was located ! John the Apostle (say 
his brethren) was eye-witness to scenes in the l^'fe of "hrist 
which John the Gospel-composer never saw! Of John the 
Baptist: naught is there to tell! Even the much-paraded 
melodramatic account of his Salome-cursed career given Vnt 
Josephus (Antiquities, ch. v. §2.) is plainly visible as a crude 
interpolation to anyone who reads §1 and then §3. 

Matthew (xiv. 11) and Mark (vi. 28) wholly disagree witli 
what Josephus' text has been forged into relatmga.bout the 
death of John. Luke, mentioning little that John dwells 
upon, tells us his little gospel includes all that Jesus ever 
did and taught— contra John who affirms that the world it- 
self could not contain the books narrating them, and who 
never alludes to the sensuous Salome in any way, either to 
"point a moral or adorn a tale." 

Hilgenfeld has given up all claims but those of Mark as 
hopeless; wiiile Bauer, Davidson, De Witte, Ewald,Eich' 
horn,. G'eisseler, Michelet, Scheurer, Strauss and others- 
all moderns; alls(^holars; all theologians; all chkistia^s^ 
go farther still and agree with frank old bishop Faustus. 

Some compared parts of the Gospels so agree as toinduc^e 
us to believe these productions were copied from each other; 
portions are just sufficiently accordant as to suggest a sus- 
picion of insi^ription from oral tradition; while yet others 
are so variant as to instantly preclude the acceptance of any 
such prcpo?<teronH suggestion. Taking into consideration 
thi' woful blunders, the jarring.maximo,. the gross ignorance 



16 

of Nnture'fl (in:(.itt'i:iblo. workinf^s. the tef^m'n.ir mxruclef^ ho 
cbar&cteriRtic of the ridi^'ulous writingd of the ^nd ct^ntury 
Fathers; thealluHions to-The Church" and other results of 
what could only proceed from gradual growth during cen- 
turies and not in an Aladdin-palace-interval such aawas the 
brief period of Christ's ministry; and, last but not least of 
siH, the incongruities so conspicuously manifest in these "in- 
fallible writings" and we have no alternative but to emphat- 
ically pronounce the entire collection of them, forgeries. 

Even the Creed is confused : undoubtedly born of Pagan 
parents (compare accounts of it to be found in the history 
of pre-Christian religions) we see it set forth by Irenaeus as 
axi offspring of his own (Against Heresies, iv. ch. SJi-ST.) and 
TertulliaTi also fathered it; in truth it has never known the 
want of fathers! Well might Oelsus exclaim: *'You con- 
fute yourselves by the evidence of your ovrn writings!'* (Or- 
igen V. Celsiis, ii. §74.) No wonder they burned his works! 
No wonder Holy Church did its best to destroy all ancient 
learning painstakingly hoarded by the Pagans of yore. Too 
well the execrable institution succeeded. The immense li- 
braries Egyptian, Grecian and Saracen had praise worthily 
founded and the collections in the numerous public reading 
places of the Romans— all vanished in the infernal flames 
enkindled by the vandal knaves and bigots of the Catholic 
Church. I verily believe that some godly christian fanatic 
rather than the great Caliph Omar applied his cursed incen 
diary torch to what was the vast repository of the literature 
constituting Alexandria's then world-wide glory. 

A3 to the Lord's Prayer: why 'tis in the "Talmud** of the 
Jews! As for the Doctrine of the Trinity: (another borrow- 
ing) no original text of the Bible presented such a state- 
ment, it was artfully inserted in "John" during Erasmus* 
time. And as for the Virgin : it required until the 5th. cen- 
tury for an (Ecumenical Council to decide that ah-e died 
land was interred) in Ephesus— till a. d. 497 for pope Crela&- 
ias to deny her ascension— and till 847 for Leo IV to give 
#» lie to Gelasius' bit of truth and confirm the legend! 



16 

The three '-Acts" fare not a whit "better when subjected 
to the touchstone of calm, unbiassed judgment — they rep- 
resent the originations of one writer, whose ardent desire 
"was to consolidate the dissonant factions of Holy Church. 
All are anonymous; all abound with inaccuracies, anachron- 
isms and contradictions ; and all glaringly exhibit apparent- 
ly designed variations of text when placed in "deadly par- 
allel with some of the Epistles. 

C<^ncerning the said "Epistles," likewise anonymous, Holy 
Church has been "set by the ears'' for centuries. Irenaeus 
and many of the Fathers rejected numbers of them (see Ad- 
am Smith's "Bible Dictionary") supposed to be of non-apos- 
tolic origin. Luther branded '* James" as a liar! All these 
productions date from the middle of the 2nd century. 

Certain of "Paul's Epistles" are now known to have been 
written long after that worthy must have died ! He who— 
most Christian thelogians admit— was the forger of II Thes- 
salonians, blackens him who Inscribed I Thessalonians with 
the same crime ; and ear-marks of forgery are plainly visible 
on the pages of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Pas- 
toral group. Only I. and II. Corinthians, Philemon, Romans 
and Gallatians have survived the critic lightning- strokes of 
centuries and remain to tteringly posing as mental offspring 
of "Paul—" Paul the visionist— Saul the seer— Paul steeped 
to the neck in Superstition's slough! Paul who knew no 
Virgin; who saw no Christ ; who was blind to miracles; who 
believed not in a material resurrection : who says he drew 
his religion from no Christ, from no Gospels, but from the 
LORD ; and who upheld expedient lying ! Of such stamp is 
*'Paur — " christians are welcome to what remains of him ! 

Finally "Revelations"wild, uncertain, incoherent of con- 
tents — anonymous as all; accredited book of God — God who 
to be God must not be a thing but here and otherwise in the 
Bible is nade to be such as often as not; and who, if he is a 
thing, exists nowliere and is not — mute on all relating to 
Js5us: what caiiw« do but stigmatize it in the words of old 
B'shop Dionysdns^as^'void of reason and of title forged?" 



17 

III. 

Tht<: Gospels subjected to the Test of 

Critical Judgment. 

I shall divide my subject into four sections, entitled: The 
Birth and Infancy— The Mission— The Trial and Death— 
and The Aftermath — of Christ; requesting my reader to 
open his Bible and indulgently follow me step by step along 
the labyrinths of its perplexities, remembering that when 
Knowledge unbars the receptive portals of the Mind, Relig- 
ion slips out at the opening — forever. In casting down the 
four great pillars of the Christian Temple, I shall seldom 
quote from infidel books — for it istitting that the scorpion 
which engendered the venom should perish by its own sting 
§1. The Birth and Infancy of Christ. 

Christians cannot tell us when their Jesus was bom. John 
and Mark are silent. Matthew, ii 1, says: "In the days of 
Herod." Luke, ii 1-6, states: "When Cyrenius was gover- 
iior"and Auugstus taxed all the world, (there never wastax- 
ing or census of all the world at one time) A difference of a 
decade between these authorities of the orthodox christians 
as we find from Josephus and others when they enlarge up- 
on the very trivial doings of the two rulers without making 
any mention of Christ. The great scholars of the Church 
vary from Luke's A. d. 7 to Usher's 4 b, c, Tertullian fix- 
ed it at 1 B. c. Chrysostom at 5 b. c. and many modern wri- 
ters at 4 B. c. The month and the day are also uncertain; 
neither are recorded by the Evangelists. Paulius says the 
birth occurred in March, Newcome says October, Clinton: 
the Spring, Larceur : the Fall, the Church of the East : Jan- 
uary, the Church of Rome : December— Canon Farrar truly 
observes "Scarcely a month but has been fixed upon!" 

A Gordian Knot indeed — but the Church cut what it could 
not unravel, and in the 4th. century selected the Feast of 
the Sun's Birthday a long-observed festival in old Pagan 
Rome, following the winter solstice and the licentious riot 
of the Sat-jrnalia: Dec. 25th! Howi;greatly opposed to the 
conditions set forth in Luke ii 8— "Shepherds abiding in the 



Held" with flocks at nighfc— thisin midwinter in PAleatlne! 

Similar confusion attends on wbere the birth took place : 
Luke li. 4. and Matthew iL 1. say that it occurred in Bethle- 
hem ; yet all four gospels refer it to Nazareth- (Mk. x. 47, 
xvl. 6. Mt. xxi 11. L. iv. 34, xviii. 37, xxiv. 19, and John, i. 46. 
and xix. 9.) Jesus, himself, is made to tell Paul, (Acts xxii. 
8.) "Ii«-m Jesusof Naiareih." And many Jews would not 
Acknowledge him as Christ because he was not of Bethlehem. 
(John vii. 41-43.) Notwithstanding all this it is now certain 
that Nazareth was not founded at the time of Christ's birth. 

The prophecy in Micah, v. 2, of the birth in Bethlehem of 
"a Ruler in Israel" was twisted in Matthew, ii. 6, into fitting 
Christ's advent! But all Old Testament prophecies adapt 
themselves illy to Jesus; who could prove no royal lineage, 
was never leader of an army, caused not any tremors to the 
fixed dominion of unruffled Rome, and felt no priest's an- 
nointing oil exalt him to the f oretold'*Kingship of the Jews.** 

Therefore he was not The Messiah— not a true Christ—how 
then can there be christians? This Jesus was Man's son 
(Mark), God's son (Matthew), God himself (John). Ah! he 
was the fallible God and the infallible Man!! But— if the 
Holy Ghost was one mother and Mary Virgin another— he 
musthave had two mothers? . . . Let us pause and ponder! 
Parallels. 
Matthew (usually). Luke (and others). 

John, who was Elias, is sent John was not Elias iii(J. i26). 
by God to announce Christ's God dwells in light (Tim. vi 
mission, xi 10-14. God lives le, Mary is told by the angel 
in darkness (I Kings viii 12, of the Lord what her child 
Psalms xcvii 2.) No men- will do i. 30,— yet wonders at 
tion of prophetic Simon, it the things Simon foretells o 
is Joseph to whom the angel it, ii 26-33. Joseph resided in 
predicts of Mary's child, 130. Galilee, i 26-27, ii 4, and he 
Joseph resided in Judea, i 20 and his wife were citi2en8 Of 
ii 1, in Bethlehem, only vis- Nazareth, i 26-27, ii 39. God's 
itiag Nazareth, ii 5, 8 and 23. will as to Jesus was annoan> 
^God's will respec ting Jesus ced to Mary by angels, i XI 26, 



08 



M&tthew (usually). 
W&8 conveyed by dreams, i 
20. ii la, 19, 22. 

Not a genuine text in the 
Bible foretells the coming of 
Chridt. The passages in Is- 
aiah, vii 14 and ix 6, are inap- 
plicable. Christian scholars 
concede that the iirst is a 
perversion of the text, ren- 
dering "girl" or "youthful 
woman" into "virgin;" also 
that this prophecy had been 
fulfilled in the time of Ahaz ; 
as for the second : that it is 
an out-and-out forgery poor- 
ly done, Christ never having 
been Governor as foretold in 
Mat. ii 6. In i 22, 23, we ara 
told of the bearing of Christ 
as the Emmanuel of Isaiah; 
Vfho calls for Immanuel and 
says nothing of Jesus— the 
name really given i 21 to the 
child, 

To prove the descent of Je- 
sus from David, necessary 
to substantiate his title to a 
Messiahship ; Matthew gives 
28 generations from David, i 
2 to 16, however he counts 42 
afterwards from Abraham, i 
17, leaving only 27 from Da- 
vid. He has 14 generations 
from the Captivity to David 
where there were but 13. See 
Matthew's mistakes -. i 2-6 vs. 



Lake (and others). 
ii 9, and^ we are told that the 
angel "came in to her" ! ! i 28. 
It is very likely that Mary em 
braced "Oabriel" rather than 
a "Holy Ghost!" Jesus says 
God was his father, Matthew 
says the Ghost was, Mary saya 
Joseph was ; and she ought to 
have known best were it not 
for the fact lintend to prove 
that baby Jesus sprang out of 
man's brain and not woman's^ 
womb. This saves Mary from 
having to pose as mother, 
daughter, wife and sister to 
Jes us ! Hallam (Middle Ages 
694) has shown she could con- 
done uncbasity ! The greats 
est religious minds of the 
ages have rejected the mir- 
aculous conception, why do 
we, then, permit youth to be 
taught to believe in it inStm- 
day schools and churchea? 

Luke enumerates 4dgeoer- 
ations of the House of David 
ending in Christ, iii 23 et aeq. 
but this differs from the Old 
Testament (Gen. v 3 etc. xi 10 
etc. I Ghron. i etc.) by 1 gen- 
eration^from Adam to Abra- 
ham. Huke allots 100 yeara 
to each generation between 
Adam &Bd Abraham, 70 from 
Abraham to David and only 
28 tio 63>ch from the Captlv 



i 17 and i 12-16 ys. i 17. He 
has allowed 50 years to eacli 
generation from the Captiv- 
ity to Christ. Many names are 
mispelled or else vary. 



ity to Christ. [According to 
Jeremiah, xxii 24^30, God's 
curse on Coniah absolutely 
prohibited all descent from 
David. 



Christ, himself, accoTding to Mat. xxii 42, etc. Luke xx 41 
to 44, and Mk. xii 35 etc., claimed no descent from David and 
averred that it mattered not. Strauss (Lehen Jesu, 122) re- 
marks that even adoption would not answer the prophecy. 

But how could Jesus have identified himself with the 
House of David when God— and ko MA^'— was alleged to be 
his real father? Also, let us consider "bis geneology :" 
Jechonis son of Josias, Mat. i 8— of Jehoiakim, I Chron. iii 16. 
Joseph " "Jacob, " i 16— of Heli, Luke, iii 23. 
Salathiel •' •' Jechonias 112- achildlessman, Jer.xxiiSO. 
Sala " *' Cainan, Lk. Iii 35— of Arphaxad, Gen. xi 12. 

Zorobabel sire of Abiud, Mt. i 13— of Rhesa, Luke, iii 27. 
Joram " " Ozias, *' i 8 — of Azariah, I Chron. iiill. 

and so on ! A most detestable tree this, if it could be traced 
for Jesus: robbery, bigamy, seduction, adulteiy, incest, mur- 
der for the male ancestors (David in the front rank); nor 
were the females any better. 



Matthew (usually). 
An angel appeared to Jo- 
seph, i 20, after Mary's con- 
ception, 18, to prevent Jo- 
seph from divorcing her, 20. 
[Christ's mother would have 
to invent some better excuse 
nowadays to explain to "Mrs. 
Grundy" the why and where- 
fore of little Jesus !]. Jesus 
is born of the Holy Ghost, 25, 
in a house, ii 11. Wise men 
from the East visited the 
child' ii 1, guided by a star, 
2 and 9, they told Herod of 



Luke (and others). 
An angel came to Mary, i 
28, before her conception, 31, 
announcing It so as to let her 
know God's purpose, 32, [Je- 
sus was Joseph's son, John i 
45, vi 42. Old issues of the 
Bible say Jopeph was hisfath 
er at ii 33. The child is born 
in a stable, 7, [No inns were 
then known in Palestine — 
Martyr says a cavern]. Shep- 
herds from a field visited him 
8, guided by an angel, 9, [An- 
cient historians mention no 



Matthew (usuaii}^). 
the birth, 2, agitating him 
and all Jerusalem, 3, so he 
seeks to kill the child, IS, its 
parents fly with it to Egypt, 
14, and Herod slays all chil- 
dren [14,000 or so !] two years 
old or under, 16, thus fulfil- 
ling Jeremiah's prophesies, 
17. [The prophesies merely 
relate to the Exodus !] 

Herod wanted to worship 
the infant, 8, only becoming 
wroth wheji aware he was 
mocked, 16. Nothing said of 
the violation of the etiquette 
due to the doctors ; and all 
afterwards told in Luke up 
to iii. What are we to think? 

§ 2. The Mission of Christ. 

Matthew indicates that Christ was 33 when he began his 
mission. Luke says he was about 30, iii 23. But according to 
iii 1 he must have been 22. Christians vary from 31 (Wiesel- 
er, Bun sen, Renan,) to 34 (Ewald). The mission lasted one 
year, Mat., three years, John, twenty years, Xrenaeus, 
"Against Heresy," II c. xii §6. 



21 
Luke (and others). 
new star]. ^No mention ia 
made of Herod being troub- 
led, but the shepherds told 
everyone of the child, 17, and 
it was brought into Herod's 
temple, 27, in Jerusalem 40 
days afterward and no one 
tried to slay it; nor did its 
parents quit Palestine* 30, 
but went to Jerusalem [des- 
pite Herod and Archelaus!] 
each year after its birth, 41- 
43. ' No massacre of infants 
mentioned. [Nor by Josephus 
or Nicolaus]. Herod is only 
noticed as a tetrarch, iii 1, 
Nothing more ! Christ sits 
in the midst of doctors, 46. 



John (usually). 
John was sent by God, 16, 
to fulfil Esaias, 23, he baptiz- 
ed ere Christ began, 28, in 
Bethany beyond Jordan. An 
anachronism here, 15-17. He 
says he knew not Jesus, 33, 
yet knew him on sight! 36. 
He baptized in iEnon, iii 23 
[no such i)lace] with water be 
fore Christ, i 26-33. Was from 



Other Gospels (etc). 
John was sent to fulfil [Ma- 
lachi iii 1] says Mark, i 2. But 
no destruction ensued ! Mat, 
lets us infer that when two- 
year-old Christ was out of 
Egypt John had begun, ii-iii. 
[Bethany not beyond Jordan] 
Christ was 30, Luke ii 2. He 
baptized Christ three gospels 
say,.one sayethnot. Two say 



John (usually,) 
Bethsaida in Galilee, xii 21. 
[Bethsaida wafi in Gaulonitis] 

He had not been jailed, iii 
22-24. Jesus intimates that 
John was not of his time and 
speaks of him in the past 
tense, Mat. xi 12 and 18; but 
just before, ibid, xi 3, John 
converses on the very day! 

Jesus baptized when he 
began work, lii 22— he never 
baptized, iv 1 and 2. 



Other Gospels (etc.) 
with **Holy Ghost;" two oth- 
ers say with that and fire. 

He had been jailed. Mat. iv 
12, Mk. i 14. It is interesting 
to note that in Matthew, "all 
things are possible with God* 
xix 26. But how about this in 
in Gen, xxxii 26 and Jud. i 19? 

Christ baptized only after 
his arising, Mat xxviiilD. 

Mk. i8 and Lk^ iii 1<> both as- 
sert that Jesus will baptize. 



No one has specified the formula used by Christ. John as- 
serts that Jesus baptized with the Holy Ghost on the even- 
ing of the Resurrection, xx. 22, but read what John's disci- 
ples say of the Holy Ghost some years later : Acts, xix 2, and 
seven weeks later; Acts, ii 4. Could the H. G. have taken 
the form of Water when it made Babel out of th^m? Had 
the hour waxed later than Peter says. Acts ii 15, would the 
saintly disciples have become inebriated? 

Matthew (usually.) Luke (and others). 

Matthew is silent concern- Annas and Caiaphas were 
ing^ Annas & Co. [Josephus high priests iii 2 and Lysan.- 



in Antiq. xviii ch. 2 §2 shows 
It was some years since An- 
nas had held office ; after him 
came Ishmael, Eleazer, Si- 
mon, then Caiaphas. Lysan- 
der, ibid, xv c. 4 §1, had been 
bulled 60 years. 1 

Matthew alludes to only 12 
disciples : of these but one 
was called Judas, x 1. 

He does not agree with the 
others as to who was fore- 
most of tbe AD'lstles 



IU8 was tetrareh of Abilene 
iii 1 when John and Christ 
began their missions. [Abi- 
lene had no such ruler !] 

Jesus appointed 70 other 
disciples x 1, he chose 12 out 
of all of them, vi 13. Two of 
these were named Judaa. vi 
16. [Mk. iii 14, says one ; John 
does not name any and ig- 
nores his brother James. No 
one seems to know who Jo- 
das really w»s. 



Matthew (usual' yX 
Peter was Christ's favorite 
xvi IT, etc. Observe how ^i- 
men Peter was called iv ^8 
and 19, and has one father. 
James and John are sum- 
moned after Peter iv 18-21. 
in two different countries at 
the same time. In Galilee iii 
1. John had baptized all of 
Jerusalem and Judea iii l.at 
this period, fwherewith Mk. 
i 5, agrees.] 

James and Joses are sons 
of Virgin Mary, xiii 55, they 
are sons of her sister, xxvii 
65. Alpheus, not Joseph, is 
James' father x 3. [Mk.'says 
Alpheus was Levi's father] 
Andrew and Peter were Je- 
sus first followers, iv 18. 

Jesus lived m a house, iv 13 
[Mk. agrees, ii 15] He fasted 
in the wilderness, iv 2. [Mk 
i 12 adds thajt the Spirit drove 
him into it]. The devil opens 
the temptation scene on the 
temple pinnacle, iv 5 et seq. 
The fiend then gives Christ 
a peep at "all the world's 
kingdoms" f rom*'an exceed- 
ingly high mountain." iv 8. 
oftering them to him, iv 9, [as 
if the god-third-of-Christ did 
not always possess his own ! 
And God who made the devil 
when he "created all things" 



Luke (and others). 
John repeatedly declares 
that he [John] was the one 
Jesus loved xiii 23, XX 2 xxi20 
Note the confusion regard^ 
ing Peter in Luke, v 1-11 and 
In John i 35-42. [and that he 
is given two fathers, John 
i42 and xxi 15.] Luke saya 
James and John were called 
with Peter V 1-11, in Galilee. 
[John says in Bethabara i 28, 
Mk. states "near Jordan" 1 9] 
All the people were baptiz- 
ed iii 21. [Yet John iv 1 hints 
that Jesus baptized the most] 
J and J were sons of Mary, 
[Mark. : they were vi 3— not 
XV 40.] 

Andrew came after Peter 
V 10 [with Peter Mk. i 16, be- 
fore Peter John i 35 et seq.] 

Jesus had "not where to lay 
his head, ix 58. There was no 
temptation m the wilderness 
nor any driving.] Christ was 
feasting at a wedding three 
days after he began his work 
John, ii 12.] The temptation 
occurs on a mountain, iv5. 
Both accounts ignore the 
curvature of the earth which 
conceals all objects at a few 
hundred miles distance away 
—showing that the gospel- 
writers or "God" imagined 
our planet to be flat t 



Matthew (usually). 
aisd foreknew what the fiend 
wcvuM do— had the power to 
sreate osly good ; deliberate 
ly designed evil, not only 
careless of all the misery it 
would caiise in the world, but 
sending it to tempt his son ! 
Over all Syria spreads the 
fame of Christ— as he traver- 
sed Galilee many were the 
miracles and ma,rvellous the 
healing wTought by him ear- 
ly in his mission, iv24, [Luke 
and Mk. agree]. Christ says : 
"ask and thou shalt receive" 



Luke (and others). 

[Christ performed only a 
single miracle at Cana, John 
V 46, before he began his 2nd 
mission, John ii and iv. Can- 
on Farrar puzzles mightily 
over this.] Bone when his 
disciples were not with hinr, 
Lk. iv 40. [When they were 
with him, John ii i-ll] 

Lk. does not mention what 
Mk. X 35-37 and x\ i 1 9 relates, 
that James and John ask for 
Christ's seat on God's right 
hand and Christ refuses and 
holds on to his plkce. 



Matthew, iv 14, in pervertingthe prophecy of Isaiah, ix 1, 
exhibits woful ignorance of the geography of Palestine! 

Commanding the disciples not to enter Samaria's cities 
Mat. X 5, Jesus (and they) entered one of the cities and tar- 
ried therein two days, John iv 5 and 40. He visited Sychar 
in Samaria, John iv 5. (it never existed) four of his followers 
were with him at Capernaum, Mk. i 16 and 21,— not so, Luke 
Iv 31, V 3, etc. John is amusing: None but Christ ever as- 
cended to heaven,iiil3. Elijah you lie! II Ks. ii 11. No man 
ever saw God, i 18,- Jacob you lie ! Gen. xxxii 30 : Jesus is 
God's only begotten son, iii 18; God you lie ! Gen. vi 4. He 
hears the "voice from heaven" Mat. iii 1&-17, then does not 
credit what he heard. John iii 2-3. Breitschneider, ''ProbaL 
de Evang. Johan." has shown us many of John's mistakes, 

Let us compare two accounts of the Sermon on the 3Iount : 
Matthew (usually). Luke (and others). 

Jesus went up into a moun- Jesus came dow>' from the 
tain, V 1, he wassetthere, V mountain, vi 12 and 17. and 



I, delivered his Sermon and 
Prayer before the multitude. 
^ 7; [note the text of each of 



stood in the plain, vi 17, he re- 
cited the Lord's Prayer later 
on in his mission and only to 



the Prayers) before Matthew 
was his disciple, ix9. 

Christ cleansed the leper in 
the presence of James and 
John, iv 21, v 1, viiiS and 23, 
before he cured the mother- 
in-law of Peter, viii 14, and 
after the Sermon, v, & viii 1. 
a centurion came for him viii 
5, before the cure -of Peter's 
m-in-L, ii 15, in Capernaum, 
5. He freed two possessed of 
devils, 28, in the land of the 
Oerpjesenes, 28, theswine (un- 
numbered) the devils enter- 
ed perished in the sea, 32, be- 
fore Matthew was called, 28, 
alsoix9. Naught of the ama- 
zing raising of Lazarus, [said 
by John, xi53, to have induc- 
ed the Jewish Council to try 
to put him to death. A myth 
originating in the tale of Si- 
mon's son Eleazar, in Joseph 
us. Strauss, Leben Jesu 548, 
notes its omission] Jesus eat 
with publicans, etc. in "the 
house," ix 10, [his own, Mk.ii 
15,] John's disciples ask why 
Jesus' do not fast, 14. A tem- 
pest stilled before Mat. was 
called, viii 23, 27, ix 9. Dead 
daughter of Jarius raised be- 
fore John's eyes, all others 
were ejected, 18-25. No tale 
of draught of fishes. He went 
to Galilee, rejected there,— 



25 

his disciples, xil, and after 
calling Matthew, v 27, vi 20. 

He did so before James'and 
John had been called, iv 40, 
V 1, after Peter's mother-in 
law, iv 38 and v 13, and be- 
fore the Sermon, v 12, vil9- 
a centurion sent elders for 
him, vii 3, after the cures, iv 
38, V 13, vi ICliin Cana, Zohn 
i V 4611 . He freed one from a 
devil, Mk. v 2, m the land of 
the Gadarenes, 1,. It entered 
into about 2000 swine, 13|1, 
who pesished in the lake, 
Luke viii 33, ||af ter Matthew 
was called, Mk. ii 14, v2. All 
devils eschewed by John!] 

Christ raised Lazarus from 
the dead, John xi 11,] also a 
dead young man at Nain, vii 
12. (Was not Christ to be the 
first raised? Paul, Acts xxvi 
23.) Christ dines with publi- 
cans, etc. at Levi's house, v 
29, Pharisee scribes ask about 
the fasting, 33. The tempest 
is stilled after Matthew was 
called, Mk. ii 14, iii 14, iv 37. 
Jarius' daughter wasn't dead 
viii 42, five persons present, 
51, [John is mute !] The fish- 
catch occurred when Christ 
began,— a net broke, v 6, [not 
till after his death,— no brok 
en net, John xxi 11. He went 
to Galilee, received there,— 



H 

Matthew (usualTy). 
because he was not honored 
in Galilee, xiii 54 etc. where 
they said "is not this the car- 
l^enter*8 son?" 55. He order- 
ered the disciples to take no 
•taves, X 10. Before he went 
forth on his mission he said : 
f 'He who receiveth you* re- 
ceive th me," X 40. 

Christ feeds a multitude, 
xiv 13, 6000 men, women and 
children, 21, in a desert [be- 
longing to Bethsaida, Mk. vi 
44.J reached by ship, 13, with 
5 loaves and 2 fishes brought 
by his disciples, 18. He sent 
tile multitude away and went 
up into the mountain [alone 
Mk. vi 46,] his disciples were 
in a ship which was to sail to 
the other side, 22, and reach- 
ed Gennesaret, 34. He came 
after them afoot, 24-25, and 
overtook them in the midst 
of the tossing sea, 24. Peter 
could not walk long, and be- 
gan to sink. 30. [Afterwards 
the disciples; whom one im- 
agines must have been given 
to the multitude along with 
the loaves, 19 : are surprised 
when he sayshe will feed but 
4000 with 7 loaves Mk. viii 4.] 

Then he went to the coftsti 
of Magdala, xv 39. B6and 
Sm' Jerusalem! 



Luke (and othersH. 
[because he was not honored 
in Judea^ John iv 43-45. where 
they asked ; *' is not this the 
carpenter?" Mk. vl3.] H© 
ordered the disciples to take 
nothing, ix 3. [To take stavea 
Mk. vi 8.] [The words in Mt. 
X 40, were uttered at supper, 
before his betrayal, J. xiii 201 

In the desert were fed 5000 
MEN, ix 14. No ship is men- 
tioned, [it would not have 
been needed overland] Je- 
sus took the loaves and fishes 
16, [a lad brought them John 
vi 9. He went up into the 
mountain fearing the multi- 
tude would make him king 
by force, John, vi 15,] his dis- 
ciples went with him, ix 18. 
(The ship was to sail to Beth- 
saida, Mk. vi 45-47) (to Caper- 
naum; John-vi 17, Jesus over- 
took them overland, 21. Pe- 
ter's accident is nottnen tion- 
ed by Mark, or John. To my 
mind : the voyage to Caper- 
naum seems to parallel the 
flight of Caiaphas* son, Jesus 
from Tiberias at night to es- 
cape Vespasian, but to be af- 
terwards killed in Gamala.) 

He then went into Samarift 
IX 52. [To the ports of Dftl- 
mamutha says, Mk. vlit t<V— 
far outof hii wayf] 



Ctirist ate with unwaslierl hands, Ltike, xi 37-^, his diiei- 
pies did, not he, Mat. xv 1 and 2, he cast^thedeyiLout of|;he; 
daughter of a Canaanite, Mat xv 22, of a Greek,. Syro-Phoe- 
necian, woman, Mk. vii 26, he gave the sign of Preset Jo- 
nas to the Pharisees, Mat. xvi 4, he would:giveTio mgn^ Mkl 
Tiii 12. At first, his disciples did not know Mm as th€ Mes- 
Biah, Mat. xvi 15, they did—they so knew him before Peter 
was called, John i 41, Moses and Elias were with Christ and 
Peter when the tabernacles were suggested, Mk. ix 4-8, they 
had gone, Luke ix -33, wh«n they appeared the discipies were 
awake, Mk. ix 4, asleep, Luke ix 32. In the Transfiguration 
(seemingly an adaptation from Exodus xxiv 8-18) his coun- 
tenance was altered, Luke ix 29, itwas not, Mk. ix 3, this oc- 
curred six days after the foretelling of the 2nd. Advent, 
Mat. xvii 1, eight days thereafter, Luke ix 28. The son cured 
after this had a "dumb spirit" in him, Mk. ix 17, he was a lu- 
natic, Mat. xvii 15. Where did the fish, in this Gospel xvii 
27, mint the money-tribute? Or did God coin it? Perhaps a 
treasure ship lay sunken in the water? Pious Farrar criti- 
cises this and remarks that the tax was always levied in the 
8priai.g, (Life of Christ, 285-288) Our Evangelist, with usual 
consistency, has it collected in Autumn ! 

Christ demands implicit belief in him because he cannot 
advance the slightest evidence of his claims that will in 
any way appeal to human reagon, See John ifci 36 and xi 26o 
Matthe\^\ (usually.) Luke, (and others.) 

Faith woulc^ enable them To move a sycamore, xvii 6.. 
to move a mountain, xvii 20. [Foretold early in his mission 
The Passion wa^ foretold late John ii 19-22.] 
in his mission, xVi 21. He The lament was set up in 
«etup a lament in Jerusalem Galilee, xiii 34. (As Jordan 
xxiii 37. Christ went to the bonds Eastern Judea, where 
coasts of Judea beyond Jor- did Christ go?) Through the 
dan, xix 1. (Jericho is on midst of Samaria and Galilee 
Mark's route, x 1.) xvii 11— afterwards thus con- 

Nothing is said of the ten tradicted :— "passed through 
cleansed lepers; but sight Jericho! xix 1. He cleaned 



128 



Matthew (usually). 
was given to two blind men, 
XX 34, as he left Jericho, 29. 
He gave the two command- 
me nts to a lawyer, xxii 35 etc. 
compare them, xix 18, with 
those in Luke and Mark. 

Christ preached in Galilee 
and Jerusalem— only once in 
Judea. In entering Jerusa- 
lem he was with his disciples 
etcxxlT. In Parables : one 
servant had 1 talent, another 
2, another 5, xxv 18, two of 
them doubled theirs, 16, the 
unprofitable one hid it in the 
earth, 18. He then said what 
is in 30-46, ending with "And 
these shall go into everlast- 
ing punishment," etc., 46. 
The feast was a dinner, xxii 
4, servants invited the guests 
13, and were slain, 6. Men 
from the highway called in at 
random are expected to have 
on wedding clothes ! 8, see 12. 

Jesus becomes a circus ri- 
der? On an ass and a colt at 
the same time, xxi 6-7. He 
confuted Pharisees as to Da- 
vid, xxii etseq. [Mark says 
scribes as to the Command- 
ments, xii 28 etc.] Searching 
for figs in March or April on 
a tree not bearing until June 
lie cursed the tree, withering 
it at once, after he purged 



Luke, (and others). 
ten lepers who knew him, 14, 
and one blind man, xviii 35 
on approaching Jericho, 35. 

A lawyer gave Christ the 
commandments, X 25, etseq. 
note how they vary, xviii 20, 
with those in Matthew. 

[Christ preached mostly in 
Judea, also in Samaria, John] 

The day before entering 
Jerusalem he was with Zac- 
cheus at Jericho, xix 1-40, [at 
Bethany with Lazarus, John 
xii 1-15]. Each servant had a 
pound, xix 13, one increased 
his 5, another 10, times, xix 
20, the unprofitable one laid 
his in a napkin, 20. Christ 
then said what ends with: 

Bring hither [mine ene- 
mies] and slay them before 
me," 27. The feast was a sup- 
per, xiv 16, a servant, 21, who 
was not harmed, 21. Com- 
pare what is then related 
with what Matthew reports ! 
Christ only rode a colt, xix 
30, [as I read Zech. ix 9, but 
ONE beast is meant: "Mat." 
in copying from the proph- 
ecy probably misread it! 

Sadducees were confuted 
as to resurrection, xx27, etc. 

He cursed the tree at the be- 
ginning of his mission, John 
ii 13-23, withering it next 



1® 

the temple, xxi 12-19, day,l)ef orepurging the tssa- 

Omits Passover ceremonies, pie, Mk. xi 13-20. 

The Synoptical writers were ignorant of Jewish rites, ets, 
at the paschal meal, those Luke gives, xii 19, are of Eieiisis« 
Wine was passed once, Mat. xxvi 28, twice, Luke xxii 17-205 
this all occurred on Passover, Luke, on the day before, John« 

Towards the close of, Mat. xxvi-xxvii, early in, Luke vil 
36-50; two days, Mat, xxvi 2-4, six days, John xii 1-3, before 
Passover; after his entry into Jerusalem, Mat. xxi 10-11, be- 
foreit, Luke vii 1-15; a woman annointed the head of Jesus,, 
in the house of Simon of Bethany, Mat. xxvi 7, Mary sister 
of Lazarus in L^s house, John xii 1-3, a sinful city woman in 
'^ain did this on his feet, Luke vii 11-38. Satan entered Ju- 
das before. Mat. xxvi 14-21, at, John xiii27, supper. Jesua 
was but once in Jerusalem, Mat., four times, John, praying 
last there, John xvii 1, in Gethsemane, Mat. xxvi 36. Judas 
named as his betrayer, xxvi, not, Luke xxii, Christ sweated 
l>lood, Luke xxii 44, no mention in Mat, Judas did. Mat xx- 
vi 48, did not, John xviii, kiss him. Judas alone, Mat. xxvi 
48, many others, John vi 64, betrayed him. Judas held less 
to blame than God, xix 11, casts away his reward in the tem- 
ple, hangs himself, Mat. xxvii5, buys a field with it, bursts 
asunder. Acts i 18. [No betrayer needed— all knew where to 
find Christ. Zech.xi 13 has the "30 pieces" yarn! Compare 
Mat. xxvi 46-51 with John xviii 3-12, Mk, xiv 2, Luke xxii 51 
NINE errors ! Lanterns ! ! Great discord hereafter prevails] 
§ 3 Christ's Trial and Death. 

Christ brought before Caiaphas, Mat, xxvi 57, Annas, John 
xviii 13, both high priests !, Luke iii 2. Tried by the Sanhe- 
drim, Mat., [ceased to try for years] at night, Mat., next mor- 
ning, Luke, One disciple. Mat., two, John, followed JesuSo 
The trial was at night, Friday, during Passover, Jesus had no 
counsellor (all illegal). False witnesses were sought : "many 
came, yet found they none ;" Mat. xxvi 60,— a Jew-Irish bull ! 
Peter's denial foretold at Jerusalem, Luke, at Mt. of Olives, 
Mat. Peter, the most shifty and uncertain of the Twelve, yet 
was given power "to bind and loo^se in heaven"— preferr^t 



and chosen by the wibk Christ who knew his character, Mat 
ZYi 19 and 23, a fitting keeper for that heaven publicaus and 
harlots were to be the first to enter ! xxi 31-52. The other 
gospels speak not of Peter's heavenly office* 

Peter stood, John xviii 16, he sat, Luke xxii 55, Mat. xxvi 
69, they accused him as he sat, Mat, xxvi 69, Luke xxii 56, 
as he entered, John xviii 16, and again a maid, Mat.xxvi 71, 
a man, Luke xxii 58, did so as Peter went into the porch, 
Mat. xxvi 71, ashe warmed himself, John xviii 25, and a third 
time bystanders, Mat. xxvi 73, one of the high priests ser- 
vants, John xviii 26, did so. Peter d enied Christ thrice be- 
fore the cock crew. Mat. xxvi to 75, only once before cock- 
crow. Mk. xiv 66-68. Jesus was with him, Luke xxii 61, ho 
was not, Mat. xxvi 71-75. John omits mention of the change 
of venue — the ridiculously improbable forwardal of Christ 
to Herod, governor of another province (Galilee) by Pilate, 
governor of Judea. Roman Pilate pronounces Christ inno- 
cent and then consistently sentences him to death ! Herod 
next performs a Jewish rite Mat. xxvi 24, as to which Mk. 
and Luke are silent. (Compare Deut. xxi 6.) Pilate allows 
the prisoner to be subjected to gross indignities, Mat, xxvi 
26. etc. in a Roman court. Christ is scourged just before 
crucifixion, (ibid.) before his trial ended, John xix 1-16, ser- 
vants struck him, Mk. xiv 65, an officer struck him, John 
xviii 22. Christ was handed over to the Jews to be crucified 
John xix 14, etc. to the soldiers. Mat. xxvii 26 and 27. Jew9 
never used this punishment; nor did they break the legs 
of thieves. The soldiers were ordered to break Christ's, ac- 
cording to John— tti^ Synoptics are silent—and disobeyed 
orders ! Roman milita^ry law disregarded ! and again viola- 
ted when they af ter\\iards took down the body and when 
they left their posts ! ^nd Peter says Jesus was hanged on 
a tree. Acts V 30 and .± 39, And John contradicts himself 
when he says the soldiers crucified Christ, xix 23. 

Matthew (usually.) Luke (and others.) 

A notable prisoner, Barab- Barabbas. a murderer and 
bas, xxvii 16. Nothing said traitor, viii 19-25,— a robber, 



Sfl 



'•©f Jesus' rebuking- him w.h fie 
being clothed in scarlet, 28, 
and crowned with thorns, 29, 
1)y Pilate's soldiers, 27, after 
the trial, (apparently borrow- 
ed from the tale of Carabas, 
i^ilo's ^Vorks iv 68-71 ; just 
^as the|trialwas manufactiir- 
.«d from that of Zaccharins, 
in Josephus,) Simon of Cyre- 
nebore the cross, 32. no quo- 
tation from Hosea. Christ 
was given vinegar and gall, 
S4, and executed at Golgotha 
*'''place of skulls'^ (no human 
skulls, etc were allowed to 
remain strewn about by the 
Jews) 33, at the 6th hour, 45, 

The soldiers placed a brief 
inscription abov^e his head, 
37, also written in Greek &c. 
yet four "infallibles" failed 
to harmoniously reproduce 
it 1 Compare 37.] There is no 
mention in Matthew of the 
mother of Christ being left 
to the care of anyone. Nor 
of Jesus' being nailed to the 
cross— only bincMng was le- 
gal. [Eusebius says Christ 
died in 33 a. b.. Origin states 
that this took place in 29 a. d. 
"Was the Universe without a 
God until the Resurrection?] 

Matthew gives Christ's last 
words in xxvii 46, at variance 
with each of the other Eva n- 



John xxviii 40,^ whom Christ 
does not rebuke, gorgeously, 
xxiii 11, [in purple, John xix 
2,] by Herod's soldiers, xxiii 
11, (during the trial, John xix 
Christ bore the cross, John 
xix 17,) he quoted Hosea x 8 
with th e cart before the horse 
xxiii 30. They gave him vin- 
egar, 36, [wine and myrrh, Mk 
XV 25.) At the 6th hour, 44, 
(the 3rd hour, Mk. after the 
6th hour, John, Pilate set the 
inscription, John xix 19, com- 
pare Mk., Luke and John. 

It was lawful for the Jews 
to execute Christ, JohnxixT 
it was not, John xviii 31. He 
was executed at Calvary, Lk. 
xxiii 33. [How just— -how mer^ 
ciful,— the God that placidly 
pr^i^r(3a|n^ such misery and 
guilt^4i?^4^h^stises the guilt* 
less for the preordained guilt 
of the guilty ! There is noth- 
ing in the Prophets to cor- 
roborate Peter's assertion in 
Acts iii 18 that Christ should 
sutfer. John states that Je- 
sus left the "woman" Mary 
his mother, not to the carfi 
of her sons and his hrothers, 
James and Joses,— but unt© 
that of John ! ! xix 26-27.] 

A lamentable bungle has 
resulted from the attempt to 
rejport the last words of J^- 



32 

Matthew (usually), 
gelists. Two thieves were 
crucified with him, xxvii oH, 
[to fulfil a prophecy which 
Wescott saj'S was interpola- 
■ted in iNIark xv 28]. "^"The vdh- 
bers reviled him, 44, and the 
soldiers exhibited learning 
m and ignorance of langua- 
ges, Luke xxiii 39-44]. Those 
passing by also reviled him, 
Mat. xxvii 38. Jesus lived 
three hours on the cross, 45- 
46. Quick work ! All his dis- 
ciples were away, 55 etc., his 
mother is not mentioned, 
althoiTgh women Of Galilee, 
followed him afar off, 55. Sol- 
tilers cast lots for his clothes 
35. Vinegar given to him. 48.. 

Not a word about blood be- 
ing fehed ; but there is of a 
** darkness over all the land," 
45, and the veil of the temple 
being rent, the earth quakes 
graves open and saints rise, 
bl-53. Christian theologists 
abardon explanation of this 
i arknies5; Farrar, "Life of 
I Irist," 505, admits that no 
1m ar eclipse could cause it. 
'Hie saints sat meekly in 
their graves till Jesus arose 
tu show them the way out!, 

;. Jc s is' blood was : lied for 
many , etc . xx v i 28 . No o th er 



Luke (and others),, 
sus : compare Luke xxiii 46, 
Mk. xvol and JchnxixSO; 
Mark falls into polyglot (the 
Aramaic "Eloi" and Hebrew 
'Uama sabaththani," xv 34), 
[Robbers, were never cru- 
cifietl,] [they were hanged, 
John]. Only one thief rail- 
ed sit JcvSus who told the oth.- 
er that they would meet in 
Paradise, Luke 39-44, (near 
sheol in Earth's centre,— why 
not in heaven?) [He lived 
six hours crucified, Mk. xv 25 
to 34. One disciple was pres- 
ent, John xix 2G],- and all his 
acquaintances, Luke xxiii 49. 
[Jesus' mother was present, 
Johnxdx 25, women of Judea 
stood by, .25]; folh^wed, Luke 
xxiii 27. [Lots were only cast 
for his coat, John xix 23-24,] 
Vinegar and hyssop given to 
him, 29; a soldier drove hia 
spear into the dead body and 
blood and water issued f orth^ 
34, John has nothing to say 
of Matthew's marvels and Lk 
omits the last four. Joseph- 
us, Pliny, Strabo, et al. are 
mute].. People stand, afar^ 
three hour-s in darkness, Be- 
HOLi>iNt^ these things, Lk. 44- 
49. Jesus' blood wa.^i shed for 
the twelve, xxii 20; [it could 
not j>.ive evcr-y«uia, Johni. 



§■4. The Attermathof Christ. 

The Aramaic "Gemara" of the "Tahiind" might be eitetl 
"by some as authority for part of Christ's and the early Chris- 
tian history; but so corrupt is its text, suspiciously brief its- 
allusions and uncertain its date of compilation that it seems 
obligatory to reject it — even as to the Crucifixion. As re-' 
gards the latter: we cannot determine its date from Mat- 
thew; according to Luke it might be 29 or 30 A. d. — to Mark^^ 
any time during nine or ten years — and to John: during ten 
, year's. This compels us to disbelieve either John or the Syn-' 
optics. The Church Fathers fixed the time at 29 A. d. Far- 
rar thinks it was in March, 30 a. d., several other Christian 
theologians say 32 A. d., many 33 A. d. and one 36 A. d. 

Similar doubt attaches to the day. John intimates that it 
was the afternoon of the 14th Nisan, xiii 1-29, xviii 28, and 
xix 13-31, on Thursday, in the preparation of the.Passover ; 
the other Evangelists assert that it wa.s the IStfi-Nisaav Fri- 
day, the day subsequent to the Passover, Mat. xiv 12 etc., 
xxvi etc. Mk. xiv 12 etp., John considered Jesus to be the 
Paschal lamb — the^ Synoptic writers held him to be the insti- 
ttitor of the Eucharist at the Paschal meal. 

Jesus was then nearly 30 years old, Luke iii 1-23, xxii : al- 
most 50, John viii 37. Irenaeus, "Contra Heres." IV c.xxii §6 
says Polycarj) the-associate of eJohn told him that Christ liv> 
ed to be nearly 50. How, then, could he have been crucified? 

Joseph of Arimathea wrap- Orthodox Joseph buys fine 
ped the body he begged of linen on the Passover, [!] Mk; 
Herod in linen [nothing said xv 46, after he begged the 
of his buying the latter. PXe body of Christ, Luke xviii 53^, 
lays the b{ )dy iii his own tomh Pilate wonders whether the 
hewn in rock, xxA'i'i GO, not man is dead, Mk, xiv 44, that 
embalmed and no mention he ordered to be slain, John 
is made of spices or of Nico- xix 16-31, etc, Joseph, Nice- 
demus. This was on the day demus and tlie women lai(J 
of Preparation, 62 ; it was to Jesus in a new^ sepulchre in a; 
stay 3 days and nig'.i ts, xii 40, garden, Jr>hn xix 41, the body. 
wasb,atlday,2 nights, xxvii, being embalmed, xix 38-4^^ 



jVIatthew uisually). 
he thoreforeroseonthe sev- 
enth, not on the Mrst, day of 
the week — for the Jewish sab 
hath closed with the setting 
of the sun. Christ's body 
was not left long enough in 
the tomb to permit decay. 

After the burial two wo- 
men visited the tomb, xxviii 
1, when the sun began to rise 
1, (also Mk. xvi 2,) while the 
-tomb was^closed, 2. An an- 
gel descended outside, 2, and 
jsat there, 2. Read what the 
angel said, 5-T. Only keepers 
w^ere frightened on behold- 
ing him, 4, ]Mary saw him at 
once, 2, the women departed 
quickly in fear and joy, 8, as 
they went they met Jesus, 9, 
[as his clothes had been ta- 
ken he must haveb^en stark 
.naked?] Mary knew him, 9. 

They were only to tell his 
'• Ijrethren , 10. Xo mention of 
John or Teter, [The hope- 
lessly conflicting accounts 
of the Appearance have been 
ably criticised by Strauss, 
■"Leben Jesu" 832, and Far- 
•rar, "Life of Christ" ii432, ad- 
mit that "a certain narra- 
tive" cannot be formed from 
them ! Paul's Epistles upset 
all "appearajaces."] Mary was 
.-bomeward bound, 9, Christ 



Luke (and otliers^. 
[after festering two days?] by 
Xicodemus with a hundred 
weight of myrrh and aloes, 39 
before the sabbath, 5u, [ait^r 
it Mk xvi 1,1 Women brougiit 
spice and ointments, xxiii 55. 
Women visitors are-jnar- 
shalled to the tomb in arith- 
metical progression: oxe, 
John|xxl,TWO, Mat., three, 
Mk. xvi 1-3, FOUR and more, 
Lk. xxiv 1-14^; [when it was 
dark, Johnxxl,] while the 
tombAvas open, Lk. xxiv 2, [a 
young man aj)peared inside, 
Mk. xvi 5, two angeis, John 
XX 12,] There were two men 
Lk. xxiv 4, who stood there, 
4, (Compare Lk., John and 
Mat. to note the confused re- 
ports). Mary did not see 
them at once, John xx 1 and 

11, she was scared, Mk, xvi 
8] . The wom en bowed down, 
Lk.xxiv5, [they ran away, 
Mk, xvi 8.] They did not meet 
Christ, xxiv. they told every 
one, 9, [they told no one,.Mk 
xvi 8. Mary did not know 
him, John xx 14]. Only Pe- 
ter went to the tomb, xxiv 

12. Peter first, 12, [John first, 
John XX 4, Peter and John 
w^ent, XX 4,] w^ho did not en- 
ter, Luke, xxiv 12, [who, Jn., 
went in, John xx G, Maty 



3S 

and his F-LEYKXdisr-iplesmet was at the sepulclire, JoUii 
in Galilee, IC, [sonie days xx 11]. Christ met his ten — 
traN'el from Jerusalem] they [twelve, Paul I Cor. xv5— ] 
worshipped him, but some discipleis [in a room in Jera- 
doubted, 17. He met them salem, gladdening- them, on- 
at a mountain, 16, and said ly one doubting him, John 
little to what we find in Lk. xx,] Terrifying them Lk. .37. 
Although Christ had repeatedly told Matthew, Mark and' 
Ij like that he would arise, and though the chief priests and: 
Pharisees were aware of it and the Sanhedrim set a guard 
on the Sabbath to keep the disciples away — yet John xx 9 de^ 
Clares the latter knew nothing of it ! ? If Christ was naked 
when his mother met hiiu, how could'she mistake him for 
the gardener? and if he was clothed where beyond the tomb 
was the shop of the tailor who fashioned his attire? Prior 
visitors to the sepulchre could u.ot haA'e garbed him — else 
would not the evangelists ha^ e known of it? And garden- 
ers do not walk forth in sheets! The whole affair remind.*?; 
one of the stories of grave-ghouls — there was no proof of a 
Resurrection presented by the. empty tomb! Why didn't 
God open it himself and show "his son" to all Jerusalem, 
all the world, instead of letting Jesus get up at night and 
only leave a sepulchre when none could behold him to tes- 
tify that^ie had^risen ! Christ's friend and disciple, John^ 
walked and talked with him — and did not know him ! PauS 
saw him (?) but Paul's companions heard nothing. Acts xxvi 
i6, but (sic) Acts ix 7 and xxii set forth that the latter did! 
The disciples were prompt to pronounce Mary an illusionist 
but what about themselves? This ghostly Jesus was on 
Earth 40 days. Acts i 3, 10 days. John xx-xxi, 1 day, Luke* 
xxiv 15 and 3G. Who says nom-:? It could vanish easily; 
re-appear in another fomr; talk auU eat ; and l)e felt and 
handled — but I can't see v<]iat it iucoTnplislied— unless the 
coming and g<ing in a narr(nv circle, like the figures ina 
dissolving view on a magic-lantern slide, amounted to any- 
thing. An afterthought — where were the other three evan- 
gelists and Plin^^ when Matthew's xxvii 51, quake occurred-^ 



m 



Miitth^w (usiTal iy' . 

Does not say where Christ 
ascended he must have done 
so in a flesh-and-blood body, 
9, to a place that was prepar- 
ed already, xxv 34, Soldiers 
iiesert their posts! xxviiill, 
and are begged and bribed 
\)j the priests to lie (so incur- 
ring death)— the latter swal- 
lowing the yarn about a res- 
urrection w^e were told they 
^id not believe in ! xxviiil5. 

[The Resurrection contra- 
dicts the Old Test. Eccl.iiilO, 
Job vii 9, Psalms cx'iiv 4.] The 
Holy Ghost given early, iii, 
DDisciples ordered to Galilee. 



ottier Crosi>elh. 
He ascended in Bethany, 
Luke xxiv 3G-52, in a spirit- 
ual body, Paul I Cor. xv 44-50. 
in Jerusalem — to prepare a 
place, John xiv2. With one 
equivocal exception (Mark's 
two last verses) there is no 
Gospel record of the Ascen- 
sion in the oldest M S. Yet 
John is made to say in iii 13 of 
his, no one but Jesus ever as- 
cended to heaven ! 

The H. G. was given at Peu 
tecost. Acts i 4-8, tef ore it, 
John XX 22. The disciples 
were ordered to stay in Jer- 
usalem, Luke xxiv 4§. 



So much for the Evangelists! What are we to think of 
these infallible saints? Setting aside the suggestive fact 
that the names of the cut-throats, robbers and fanatics to be 
found in Josephus, "Wars" II xiii 4, etc., are also those of 
the visionaries tagging after "Christ;" let us take them as 
the Bible very unfavorably presents them to us. 

They were not disinterested men : each strove for some 
recompense. Mat. xix 27, Mark x 35-37, even just when Je- 
sus had intimated his impending doom, Mark x 34, the self- 
ish disciples contended "which of them should be accounted 
the greatest," Luke xxii 24. They were to love one another, 
John xiii 34, yet the lie was passed freely, Rev. ii2, Gal. ii7, 
ys. Acts XV 7.— Paul ii 20 vs- Gal ii 16-21 ; etc. 

They|did not attempt to prevent the betrayal ; although 
they had been told who was to accomplish it^ Mat. xxvi 25, 
and when Christ was arrested these faithful, manly friends 
all FLED, 56. Twelve dogs would have served "The Mas- 
ter" infinitely better ! And one who camo back, moved by 
inere curiosity, flatly deiiiedhim, cursing the while r 60-75— 



37 



Feter, who had quarrelled with him before, Mk. viii 32-33. 
No wonder that Voltaire characterized these men as be- 
ing "Twelve knaves poor as church mice and ignorant as 
©wis—" according to Jesus himself, they were : Ignorant as 
bahes, unwise and imprudent, Luke x 21. Paul denounced 
learning: "If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant," 
I Cor. xiv38, also iii 19; he admits his craftiness, lying and 
robbery, II Cor, xii 16 and xi 8, Romans 7, ^notwithstanding 
Zech xiii 4), his being all tbings to all men, I Cor. ix 20-22; 
his readiness to murder : "Iwould they were all cut offwhich 
trouble you," Gal. v 12; he defames woman, I Cor. viii 1, 8, 
27, 34 and 38, Eph. v 34, and I Tim. ii 11 ; and he asserts that 
all things are lawful for him, but not expedient ! I Cor. x 23. 
James and John wanted to consume a Samaritan with fire 
from heaven, Luke ix 53-54. Another lops off: an ear, xxii 50. 
The twelve apostles knew not the sacrament, and only 
Luke menrtiansChrist as saying to continue to observe th« 
Eucharist, in partaking of which Jesus and a" 1 must have 
been cannibals. Ignorant of the laws of Jew and Roman; 
of Jewish division of time, John xx 19; of the geography of 
their own country; of the physiology of their bodies — vvhat 
are we to think of these inspired teachers of men? 

Ignorance of laws : Mat. xix 12, vs. Deut. xxiii 1. Mark is 
not posted in the divorce law, x. See pgs. 29 and 30, ante. 
Ignorance of B ible history : Mk. ii 22 no Nazarene prophecy- 

vs. Gen. xxii 1. 

' Jer.xviiill. 
Exod. xxxiii 11 

' xxiv 10 & Gen. 
xxxii 30. 

■' Erov. xxiii 31. 1 

•* Judges iv 4. 

' Heb. xi 17. 

' Exod. vii 11-12. 

' Gen. ii 18 H. xiii 

' Num. XXV 9. 

' " Ad 5. 

'* Jer xiii 14 xiil 
Errors in Time : Mat. xviii 17, Luke ii 12. xiii 1. John iii 10, 
ix 10, Paul^ I Cor. xi 16. Ignorance oi language : Refer, 
Acts i 19, a Greek word. Paul Act^ xx 35, a blind jdagrarism'! 



Mat. vi 6 


VS. I Ks. viii 22. 


Jas. i 13 


■" vii 8 


'♦ Prov. i 28. 


u u u 


*' V34 


*' Jer. xii 16. 


I Tim. vi 16 


ii li u 


'* Num. XXX 2 


& Jn.ilS 


" " 32 


" Deut. xxiv 1 




Ek- vi 20-24 


" Prov. xl5. 


I Tim. V 23 


" XI 10 


" Josh. xi 20. 


" " ii 12 


•*' vi 2 


" Prov XX ill. 


Gal. iv 22 


" '' 25 


" Eccl. viii 15. 


John iii 2 


I John V 7 


" Deut. vi 4. 


I Cor. vii 1 


Kom. xiv5 


" Exod. XX 8. 


" " x8 


" xix 4 


"" Deut. xiv 7. 


" •' xil4 


' " XV 33 


" Evod. XV 3. 


I Jn. iv 16 



MattHew makes several Irish Bialls: one is m xliil2, afldl 
another is in vi 8 and xxi 21-22, (for while the Lord know* 
our wants before we unnecessarily pray to him — prayer i-s 
necessary and absolutely effective! Notwithstanding Na- 
ture's evident, relentless and immutable laws!) 

Here are some manifest contradictions, by the apostles^ 
-of themselves and of each other; 
John X 27-28 vs. II Peter ii 20. Mat. vi 7-8 vs. Luke xi 8. 

" xiv IB " John XV 16. " xxviii 19 " I Cor. i 17^ 

I" iii 9 '* IK'S. viii46. Lk. xviii 18-22 " Lk. xix 8,- 
I" " " " Roman iii 10. " xi 23 •' **• 1x50 

Mat. V 16 " Mat. vil. •' xiv 26 "Eph.v25vi^ 

" vi 13 " James i 2 Acts xviii 10 "Iieor.xi24- 

" xxvi52 " Lukexxii36. II Tim. iii 16 '* '* " "17. 

Let us comjlude with : "Who will harm you?"! Petei iii 13^, 
Take care they don't kill you, John vii 1, xii 27, "Not a hair 
of their heads shall perish" Luke xxi 1^, anii^ '*-Be not afraicfi 
of them that kill, Luke xii 4. 

Amid this mass of the laughable, the obscure and the in^ 
ane of the New Testament, four shameful passages stanci 
forth, illumed by the fiend- lire of a father-mind surpassing: 
that of the hell that christians picture— passages whose ac*- 
cursed import should cause all followers of Christ to hide 
their heads in shame — passages that stamp the devil-Christ 
with a. blacker brand as a malignant instigator to enmity 
and persecution worse than any Torquemada that ever dis- 
gra(;ed the world. Mattheav xxv 46, 31ark x 29 et seq.^ 
Mark xvi 16, and Luke xiv 26, — who can sum up the ter« 
rible total of the human hate, anguish, cruelty and blood* 
guiltine&seeatained in and instigated by these sentence* 
reported to emanate from a mild Saviour of Men I 

What is our impression of the many-sided character of 
Christ as we receive it from the Testament? Atonetiim* 
that of a gentle, forgiving, etherial, angel— at another that 
of a harsh, merciless, gross fiend; good and evil of the old 
familiar earth-earthy alternately manifest and masterful ilk 
Jtiie same being. Let us portray Ahiiman and Oraiuzdl 



Good. 
Christ loves little 
children, IVLat. xix 
14. 

He asserted that 
there were no mas- 
ters, Mat. xxiii 8-10, 
nor slaves, 3Iat. iv 
10. All brethren! 

He said that oth- 
ers should not be 
judged, Mat. vii 1-4, 

He advised being 
Indiftereut regard- 
ing eating or drink- 
ing, JNIat. vi 25. 

He urged meek- 
ness, Mat. v5, and 
agreement with ad- 
versaries, v 25, and 
non-resistance, v39 

Honor thy father 
and mother, he up- 
held. Mat. xv4, Mk 
xl9. 

He knew so much 
that all were aston- 
ished at his un ler- 
standing,Lidve ii 47 
and his wisdom in- 
creased, ii 52. 

He was peaceful : 
"Blest are the poot 
in spirit-, Mat, v 3, — 
the meek, V 5,r— the 
peacemakers, \ 9, 



39 

Evil. 

Christ had no liking for the Gentile 
chii<lren: they were as dogs, Mat. xv 
26. Ho thought not of the sutferings 
of animals, Mat. viii 32, xii 12. 

He advocated slavery, I Peter ii 18, 
Col.iii22, and so his apostles taught, 
Epis. vi5, III Peter ii 18. He favored 
communism (of females also?) Acts iv 
32, But he^ failed to practice it. 

He judged others continually, was 
devoid of common civility, Luke xi 37, 
John ii 13, etc. He was not a temper- 
ate man, Luke vii 34, and encouraged 
intem})erance in others, John ii 1-7, 
they shall drink with him hereafter. 

He was devoid of meekness on occa- 
sion, pouring forth invective and abuse 
Mat. xxiii 7-33, xvi 1-4, Ek xi 37, John 
x 8, viii 44, perhaps in the last the dis- 
ciples were included? And he was al- 
so violent, Mat. xxi 12, Luke xix 45. 

When near to death, as well as when 
in the joy and vigor of life, he is unlil- 
ial even to the extent of unklndness; 
repulsi\ ely brusqe to his own mother, 
John xix 26, "Woman, what have I tO' 
do with thee?'^' See also Mat. xii 48, Mk. 
iii 32, and John ii 4. Sons may not tarry- 
to bury fathers, Luke ix -"9. [Mat xxiii 9.] 

He was very ignorant, in fact he did 
not advocate enlightening the world; 
was not even wise enough to disbelieve 
in the devils, Mat. xii 28, Lk. x 18, etc. 
was no botanist : witness the mustard- 
sesed , Mat. xiii 32 : was no chemist : wit- 
ness the salt's saltness, Mk. ix 50; .wa» 



40 



Resist not evil— no historian: witness Eararhius' son, 
mnst turn the oth- slain 40 years after the alleged Crucifix- 
er cheek to be ion instead of in the past, Mat. xxiii 35 
smitten, Lk. vi 29, vs. Josephus' "Antiq" and was no phys- 
He had lofty disre- iologist : witness Out of the heart pro- 
gard of death, Lk. ceed evil thoughts, Mat. xvi 19. And he 
xi. 4. Love your rebuked the wind and sea, Mk. iv 39, 
enemies; do good withered the hg tree, Mat xxi 19. Not 
to them that hate a word eulogistic of, or in quotation 
you, Luke vi 27, 35. from, ^he shining truths set forth by- 
He was forgiving the mighty philosophic minds of ages 
See Jn. viii 3-11. gone before : Pittacus, Isocrates, Tha- 

He came to bring les, etc. Though a boaster, he was also- 
peace, Luke, ii 14. a coward avoiding danger, John vii 1-8 

He believed in vii 50. Read of his agonized cry at Beth- 
giving thought to lehem ! Also Mat. iv 12. xii 16, xiv 13. . 
the morrow, I Tim. He encouraged fraud, Luke xvi 1-8. he- 
V 8. aissimulated on occasion, Mat. xx 1, etc 

His yoke was an Mk. vii 36, Luke xxiv 28, he prevarica- 
easy one to bear^ ted, John vii 8, he assisted thievery, Lk. 
Mat. xi 30, vi 30 and he stole. Mat. x 9, Luke vi 1, 

He was all-pew- vii 26, ix 1, x 4, xix 30. Speaks of him- 
erful, Mat. xxviii self as a homeless mendicant, who gave 
18, and could fore- up labor and turned strolling beggar, 
tell all things, xvi Luke ix 58 — et al. He taught resistance, 
28, xxiA' 34. John ii 15, Lk. vxii 36, He was unf orgi v- 

His father wa,s ing, Mat. x 33 (poor Peter!) He would 
grea.ter than he have his enemies slain before him (!), 
John xiv 28. Luke xix 27. The Son of Man shall send 

He died for^hls forth his angel— and shall cast them in- 
enemies, Rm. v 10. to a furnace of fire. Mat. xiii 41-42. 

-- He came not to bring peace, ''but a 

sword," Mat. x 34, to cause strife and set 
families at variance, Mat. x 34, Lk. xii 51, etc. He gave no 
thought to the morrow, 3Iat. vi 28-g4. His yoke entailed per- 
secution, IITim.iiil2. He was not all-powerful, M^. vi 5, 
and mis-f ore told » Mk. xiii 30 His father is not greater than^' 



s*%e> Jn. X 30, Phil, ii 5. He only died for friends, Jn. xy IS.. 

~ ' Thus terminates an edifying parallel which it would have 
Tbeen very easy for me to have carried to a much greater 

' length by drawing upon the teeming treasury of contradic- 
tions atlorded by the New Testament ; had I imagined that 
by so doing, it would have been of. any material benelit to 
^ly reader. After it all, what remains to be said? Christ 
as he has been laid bare to us by what we are commanded to 
toelieve is his true record,^ could be but a lamentable failure 
never approaching to the highest type of being. He had no 
message for society in general — nothing against the slave- 
inaster, the cai)italist, the land-grabber, the co-ercer of wo- 

•.3taen— what to him were the working classes, the serfs? 
;To him the individual was all-in-all, provided that individ- 

■ -Sial was a Jew^ He never even said that he came down to 
gave men —nor did the Early Fathers or the Apostles believe 
«o; nor did the fall and condemnation of Adam receive 
the briefest mention by him. He is silent regarding his own 
strange birth. Only once does he define his gospel : that in 
l^ark xvi 16, and a sweet and comforting sentence he pre- 
sents it in! Even then, he omitted to say what was to be 
jDelieved— and he indicates impossible signs (18) as those by 

-Which believers shall be known. Salvation's vaguity is ab- 
surdly manifested by many conflicting statements : among 
these : Faith, not works lustifies a man, Gal. ii 16-21, lit 11-12 
Rom. iii 20, iv 2; as against : Faith, without works is dead. By 
works and not by faith only a man is justified, Jas. ii 20-24, 
Kom. ii 13. According to what can be gathered from Jesus' 
utterances, the sinner that is not good is held to be good 
because some one else whom he believes in has suffered for 
him ! Such Christian salvation will never save the world; 
the world needs saving from. Christianity, Ignorance and 
their children Fear and Cruelty, this no "Saviour" who came 
to consign to hell-fire all who rejected his gospel, can effect,, -■ 

This mere man-creation of Man's could not come to edu- 
cate, his mind was cast in no intellectual mould; unlearn- 
ed Mmsel f he grasped not the fourfold needs of our jgnoranfc 



42 

credulous and brutal kind, all his fabricator could effect 
was to thickly weave a present mist-raiineut of faith about 
him as dense and inipenetnble as the obscuring* veil which 
intervened between him and a future and its wider knowl- 
edge he could neither divine nor see. 

Mytlishave a fourfold origin : Plistory, Poetry, Philosophy 
and Astronomy give tbeni birth. How did the Christ-mytft 
arise? There are theories innumerable; some writers ini;- 
agine that it took shape from the worship of the Sun : Zo- 
roaster the Persian (1200 b. c.) taught the eternal warfare of 
Ormuzd the Good and Ahriman the Elvil in th« battlefield 
of the Heavens, and a weird assemblage of God and Devil, 
Paradise, Hell,Purgatory, Prayer, Miracles, Revelation, Im- 
mortality and Everlasting Reward and Punishment figure 
in his christian-like creed. Zoroaster the God-sent — the Sar 
vior— the ruler : predicted the ee;uQ.mg- of Sosiosii the virgin- 
born to vrhom'k star should he the guide ; ami bequeathecJ 
iri'his "Zend Avesta" and "Gathas" all the more vital the- 
ology of the church of Christ. The nimbus about the head 
of Jesus '^sun-rays,) the cross (sun emblem,) the resurrections 
(sunrise,) the twelve apostles (zodaiacal signs, twelye palaces 
each star a deity,) and the Christmas (the Sun's Birthday,) 
all lend transitory show of substance to this theory. 

Others see in Promotheus the Titan, alleged to have suf- 
fered on the cross and wrought more for men than ever did 
tlie fabulous Jesus— 'the actual prototype of Christ. 

Some uphold Christ's developmient from the bloody wor 
ship of Hesus in ancient Britain, (see L-ucian i -445) and oth- 
ers yet fancy traces of Star- of Cloud of Fire- Animal- or of 
Idol-worship scattered through the Testament and clearly 
jrpinting to the origin of the Mytliologic Christ. 

The Grecians had Gods akin to Christ — though the Early 
Fathers regarded these gods as demons, they were never- 
theless blended into the complex composing the christian 
religion; the continual allusion to the blood of Christ, Eu- 
charist and sacrifice is ample proof of the mingling of Pa- 
jjanism in. the Creed. As to Gods (passing <n'er Adonis. JE3=t 



43 

fiilapms, et>l.) about 14 fceiituries before Christ we meet 
with the God jAsrus, son ot a triune God, Tri-Ops out of the 
Tirgin Electra (Homer's Odyssey -v 125. Hesiod's Theogany, 
Virgil's JEn. iii 168, etc.); a god also called Dionysius, whose 
tradition includes the principal phenomena attaching to 
Jesus. Likewise did the belief in immortal souls have birth 
in Greece (Homer's "Iliad," verse 4); Herodotus wrote of 
. the incarnation of the God Osiris of Egypt; and we know 
peojileof that country expected a resurrection of the dead. 

From all this, and much more, it would seem that Christ 
•can be fancifully attributed to any of the above-mentioned 
deities and to Hercules. Perseus, Zeus, Thales, Thor, Odin 
and others as well. But— to my mind— the claims of these 
■are eclipsed by those of the extraordinary Chhisna. Yes! 
■Christ was born of the semi-fabulous hero of the Bhagavat 
Vishnu (or Purana) and the Bhagavat Gita— as the reader 
■who attenti vely^peruses these works cannot fail to perceive., 

This eighth incarnation of the Great God Vishnu is repu- 
ted to have flourished ten centuries ''b. c." and what is re- 
lated of him in the venerable books above mentioned, con- 
clusively destroys the originality of Christ and deals the fi- 
nal blow at the authenticity of the "Gospels." I parallel th^ 
t;wo traditions— both faithfully given: 

Christ. Chrisna. 

Born in an ill-defined lo- In an unknown place in In 
cality in Palestine. dia, 

A divine incarnation. Incarnation (8th) of Vishnu. 

Mother was Mary. 3iaia. 

Virgin conception; w^omb of Virgin conception; left rib 
a Jewish maiden. of a Devaci virgin. 

Father: Joseph, carpenter. Jamadagoo, carpenter. 
Born at midnight in a stable. Midnight, in a prison. 
Sheltered among shepherds. Among cowherds. 
Angels saaig around him, Similar, but (as with Christ) 
shepherds, &c. visited him. varying accounts. 
Herod sought his infant life. Can sa sought the child'sJileo 
Flight by night saves him. ^To close paTalleL 



i4 



Christ. 
Rest at Maturea. 
Descends into HelL (Peter, I 
iii 19, sole authority for this). 
Mission to save mankind. 
Has twelve dis .-iples? .' 
Kest-beloA ed was John. 
Washes disciples feet. . 
Raises dead; cleans lepers. 
Tells his disciples a moun- 
tain may be raisad. 

Rose superior to temp.tation, 

Saviour. Was crucified? 

Hild, meek, benevolent ; yet 
brings war — assails enemies. 
Rises after death. Returns 
to Heaven. Will come again. 
Birthdaycelebratedat Yule. 
Cross-symbol, Eucharist-ceremony, common to both heroe^i 

All this offers too manystrikingiy parallel co-incidences t6 
be, merely imaginary or accidental. Yes! Christ was bom 
of Chrisna in 31an's fertile brain — probably the studious,^ 
cunning brain of Origen ; Origen who systematized fraud 
and forgery into a fine art : calling the process ''Economia ;'.*' 
Origen who, a scholar, had everything at hand ; Origen who 
shamelessly chuckles over his knavery in many matters! 

Melito (141 A. D.) tells us that Christianity is of hoar antiq,- 
uity and that it was introduced into Rome in Augustus Cae- 
sar's time from lands beyond the sea — with all this plastic 
material under none too skillful moulding by such a rogue 
as Origen, — behold how Jesus was conglomerated into form ! 

J^ is amusing to note how readily christians accept myths, 
like this of the Christ nature, as history, in default of evi- 
lentte of only 1880 years ago: when they persistently reject" 



1 HPfSXA. 

Chrisna born at ^lat'hiira^ 

Descends into l^uvana. 

To regenerate mankind. 
Has ten disciples? 
At John. 

\Vashes Bralimin's feet. 
Raises dead; cleans lepers.^ 
Shows his followers a moun- 
tain held on- his fingers, anql 
bars Indra's fury with oire.- 
Resisted temptation. 
Saves numbers. Self -immo- 
lated.' A Hindu tradition of 
his cnicifixion prevalent. 
The same; but actually corT- 
ducts a war- -slays enemies^ 
Rises after death. Return^ 
to Heaven. Yvill'come again^ 
AtHouli, 



45 

and clamor for proofs of the facts of '-Darwinism" that re- 
quire to be marshalled forth from the wreck and chaos of 
maybe a million of bygone years ! All chargeable to the 
pap of miracle-compounded Faith with which they have 
been fed by their mothers and the priests from earliest in- 
fancy. Christ stands only on the miraculous: that is, the 
impossible; for only what is impossible can be miraculous. 
All miracles cease to be miracles as soon as theyare explajn- 
Ei^ and proved possible, either then entering the ranks of 
the conimon})lace or vanishing into nothingness like the 
eerie shapes we conjure up to startle our senses during the 
hallucinations of illness or in the vaguity of night. 

Who accepts the impossible in the gravity of everyday 
life? Who believes it in the mythology of the Grecian 
Gods? In that of the \veird Norse Deities? Or in that of 
the fantastic Hindu Supernaturals? Yet what numbers, 
their ears closed to Reason by the foul wax of Superstition, 
credit christian impossibilities— miracles — phenomena in 
absolute defiance and direct controversion of all Xatitre's 
immutable laws. Laws which Hume hath told us "Are es- 
tablished by firm and unalterable experiment." Only the 
-few whose sense is not clogged by this wax cry out: Mira- 
cles are incredible ; they are at best the natural unexplained. 

Suv'h beipg the case, then (in the words x)f C anon Farrar, 
**Witness of Hist. 25) "If miracles be incredible, Christian- 
ity is false." There Ave have it! Come; let us be reason- 
able, consistent, just. Facts are beyond denial. Truth must 
prevail : (Jhrist is a m^'th ! 

IV. 

CnRfSTiA^iTY As It Is. 
We have seen the'oase, the artful, the evil, source and es- 
tablish]iient,ot this religion that seeks to lay its mind-<Iwarf- 
ing" yoke upon us a:t our very birth : incessantly stalks ug 
all through our weailed lives ; ar.d even shakes life's ebbing 
sands in- tierce attempt to clairu us as its ownljefore our 
senses la..pselnto.;iicef nai Bleep. There is morf'^tio see ! 



4^ 

The deplorable social oonditioDs thinly t^rapecl by Thristi- 
anity today are but natural results of its vieious^ beginning. 
Jtoi Holy Church, in the name of its manufactured deity, 
offered a debasing premium on the immoral and criminal 
and ealled for sinners to bid in futures on its gilt-edged is- 
sues of celestial stock— displaj-ing little solicitude for the 
already upright and virtuous. Instead of insisting that 
morals should depend on the lofty promptings of conscience 
enlightenment and love of humankind, Christianity ever 
managed that ethics should rest upon a mere animal self in- 
terest stimulated by the terrors of faith. Christianity has 
never civilized! Religion has never created Morality in 
drawing the paradoxical line between Mind and Matter; it 
only lamentably debased whatever already existed. It has 
instructed humankind still more to jjersecute, to torture 
and to slaughter. And for its own worthless sake; with 
**salvation" as the promised meed! Admirably Buckle re- 
marks: "To assert that Christianity communicated to Man 
moral truths previously unknown, argues on the part of the 
assertor either gross ignorance or wilful fraud," (Hist. Civ. 
i. 129), This, and the superior morals of Buddhism accounts 
for the very trifling conversion that nearly five centuries of 
christian endea^er has eftected in India and China — usual- 
ly only those having something temptingly temporal to 
gain by their apostacy being won over to Jesus! 

Christianity is a faith that has tended to tread Woman in 
the mire. Consult the early Fathers! Review the whole of 
Church History! Tlien doubt no longer. Quoth Clement: 
"Shame doth it give to woman to even meditate of what na- 
ture she is." Others asserted that woman's 4air body was 
the gate to Hell— she was lust-exciting, devil-abetting— a 
creature only existing on the Earth to minister to the vile 
and vicious cravings of Man ! She should live in continu- 
ous penuance; be ashamed of her raiment, her beauty, her 
sexual organs— and pass a silent, sad and thoughtful life, 
humbly su'Oj ct to the imperious will of her male master! 

For shame ! Ihese being the teachings of the founders of 



47 

the Christian faith, we are compelled by them to feel that 
though a christian maybe morally elevated by being a man, 
no man can be ennobled by being a christian— for what 
man can be ethical at heart and yet profess a faith which as- 
perses and debases the mother that bore him? 

Yet how many of the unthinking really delight in the ap- 
pellation of "christian." Deluded by lies from early child- 
hood, they are children still! Verily "Jeremiah" passed 
well upon religion when "he said" "My people love to have 
it so," that is, to be hoodwinked ! Plato, Strabo and others 
insinuated the advisability of deceiving the people and per- 
petuating mass ignorance and it must be admitted that the 
Fathers of the Church both past and present have not failed 
to put into practice such congenial and learned advice. So 
we are led to revere a more or less shrewd, designing, pre- 
sumptive knave, plausible of tongue and flexile of face, who 
looks to it that we keep holy a non-Scriptural Sabbath bor- 
rowed from Babylonic usage, on w^hich the Bible's G^od never 
ordained a moment's rest: who closes all other shows save 
his own ; cunningly keeps the women and children on his 
side; intercedes for the unconbonable, pretends to knowl- 
edge of the unknowable and points the pathway to a Hell or 
Heaven his nor no one else's feet ever trod! We exalt this 
man to idealistic virtue; remain more or less conveniently 
t)lind to his errors or crimes, confide our household peace 
and purity to his honor, and continue to maintain his person 
(as useless to society as that of any rain-doctor of the Kaffirs) 
in comparative idleness and comfort — well knowing that 
the God of whom he tells us we may procure all things by 
faith and prayer will not move a celestial finger to save him 
from starvation were we to withdraw our support. 

Catholic schools and Protestant Sunday schools are fool- 
ishly tolerated among us to recruit the ranks of Supersti- 
tion's votaries, and we view with ludicrous indifference the 
teaching of children in the public school that one is one and 
that water cannot be wine: and in the Sunday institution 
that one is three and water can metamorphose into wine ! 



48 

Everywhere about us^e either beholci what Christianity is 
or what it permits to remain to afflict humankind, and we 
cannot help observing that, oftentimes, far from elevating 
us above the "barbaric" races it deeply depresses us below 
fchem ; cultivating harvests of racial and class hatred, pro- 
moting temporal power and wealth-, evading its just share 
of taxation, and fathering arrogance ,hypocrisy and fraud. 

True, we are not officially "a Christian Nation," but so ma- 
ny religious forces are strenuously at work through the po- 
tent media of church influence, politics, women and the in- 
vaded public schools to make us one, that Grovernment can- 
not eventually resist the pressure thus brought to bear up- 
on it — unless the early occurrence of the certain future 
splitting-off of the working classes and the women from 
the Church brings much needed and timely relief. 

Christianity has ever been the bond- servant to Mammon; 
witness its attitude towards the rich and the poor — it has 
always looked down on the wage-earner, and during the era 
of the Middle Ages throttled him with one hand while emp- 
tying his pockets with the other. The least said of Govern- 
ment, infected by Religion so corrupt, the better — a legisla- 
lation "for the people" that neither represents the people 
nor executes the popular will— protects life, rights and 
property— and does not! that taxes the rich less than the 
poor and the Church not at all ! that deals in lottery-chances 
in patents to inventors mulctedby it of a heavy fee whom, 
instead of defending, it then abandons to ruinous litigation 
in the over-many courts ; that extends no arbitrating hand 
to redress the wrongs of the maimed employee or of the op- 
pressed "striker;" and that perpetuates in office a class of 
men often venal, partial and corrupt both in.public and pri- 
vate life whom, nevertheless, we must perforce respect and 
cannot remove : The Judges; inclining to wealth, monopo- 
listic and railroad corporation service, smiling on the rich, 
frowning on the poor, finijs^g the former; jailing the lat- 
ter! Our lawyers a vampire horde of robber-liars whom 
society could well dispense with altogether did not humanr 
kind cling fatuously to the moss-grown altars of Bridlegoose 
Custoin. Knaves preying even on each other and never so 
much in their congenial element than when, as Swift says^. 
fchey are proving a white cow is black! Suited to the law^ 



courts wherein they plead : where too ofteff, afai^, tB'e jXid^ef 
is a lie, the counsel and witnesses liars and the plaintiff (or 
defendant) is forced to lie to outlie the array a^inst him or 
else endure punishment for being an honest nmn! where- 
dishonorable deacons are allowed to testify and honorable- 
atheists debarred from bearing witness! and where there isr 
only "law for everyone" if there is money enough to set law'^- 
clogged machinery in motion ; law then to distress or ruin 
the'wretched seeker after justice. Politicians purchasing- 
votes, pledging a hundred things before election that they 
never intend to'f ulfil ; selling the interests of constituents ; 
swindling, embezzling, stealing. Statesman, senator, rep- 
resentative, governor all spring from these^- worthy progeny 
are they ! How rare it is to find an honest man in Politics ! 

All these have sprung from the People — all these have 
been trained in the Christian faith — and all these edifyingly 
exhibit the natural instincts of ignorant M^n, basely kept 
ignorant by a false, mystifying and salacious creed. Only 
a good people can produce and maintain good government^ 
and good "religion." What, then, are the people of today? 
Each man is a mediaeval robber-knight, issuing forth in the 
morning to plunder and prey upon his fellow and returning 
to his den at eventide either loaded with loot or despoiled 
of what he had. Intemperance holds the masses ih<"brutisb 
bondage in a cage of steel ; Prostitution penetrates all so- 
ciety with loathsome gangrene — leaving us to wonder what 
man or woman is really pure ; Incompetency and Crime, part 
children of these two evils, gain daily growth,, sending forth 
the lazy, semi-instructed dishonest workman who clieats his 
employer of time and his employer's customer of his due; 
starting clerk, cashier and office boy on the road to defraud 
and steal. Contractors and shopkeepers furnishing poor 
materials and poorer service ; charlatans, quack-doctors, as- 
trologers, usurers, plying busy trades on the greed and gul- 
libility of their less acute fellow-men ; bankers^, brokers spec- 
ulators all active in the cheerful game. Race-track- Wall 
Street- and other gambling prospering over all the laja^l-: 



Most invoking or'taking shelter in Christianity when dis- 
covered — or courting its cloak ere the beginning of their ne- 
farious practices, the better to develop, unmolested, their 
base designs. No brotherhood of Man; but insolent, exclu- 
sive "Wealth now yearly building a stronger and stronger bar- 
rier about itself, sapping the virtue, strength and patriotism 
of the land, and exciting the envy, discontent and fury of 
the less fortunate of the community (who feel that they who 
bave labored should have a share in the opulence of those 
who have risen by their means): until in the nearing future 
it will constitute one of the most fearsome problems of the 
ages. Capital warring.with Labor — decimating the ranks of 
the toilers by disregarding accident, disease and death, by 
maintaining ill-equipped and poorly-built factories, forcing 
long hours of exhausting toil, neglecting humane insurance 
of its help, outrageously overworking tiny children — oft- 
en almost infants— and withholding the just dues of and 
casting out aged or disabled employees as one would throw 
away a well-sucked orange. Driving the organized in fran- 
tic desperation, in the groping impotency of unrealized pow- 
er, and the throes of daily want or hunger, to strive to ob- 
tain a moiety of their rights by threats, by violence, by min- 
iature civil war — only to be rigorously suppressed by the 
class controlling the arsenals and the soldiery, with the bru- 
tal injustice exhibited in Pennsylvania but four years ago. 

Everywhere the poor covertly menacing; the rich secret- 
ly trembling; and both rushng to drown their sorrows in 
the debauchiag cup whose Iquor casts a rosy radiance and 
a Lethean spell o'er some fleeting moments. 

^'Everyone free to work," yet everyone everywhere con- 
fronted and impeded by taxes, licenses and restrictions ; hur 
dies and pitfalls on Life's highways and byways. The laborer 
while wearing a mask of hji)ocritical friendliness, striving 
to oust his comrade from an envied situation. The modest 
and unassuming crowded out ; the original and gifted perse- 
cuted; the honest andv/ell-meaning often compelled to be- 
'Come thieves (or worse) before they really interest society 



£1 

"in general! Women denied their natxiral rights as eq lals 
in merit with men ; marriages and profligacy permitted dis- 
gracing and lowering the standard of the race, while graft- 
ing disease, degeneracy and vice upon helpless children who 
receive not the rightful regard before and after generation, 
the sexual enlightenment during tender years ; that would 
tend to ensure healthy births, unvitiated youth and vigorous 
virile maturity— all through the vain delusion that ignorance 

.constitutes innocence ! Government should distribute books 

:.like Fowler's and Foote's broadcast among the masses. 
Criminals shamefully punished or put to death by the no 

Jess corrupt society which gives them birth; instead of be- 
ing set to work for the equal support of the State, their rel- 
atives and their own after-years— while ministered to mor- 
ally, mentally, physically and generatively as beings of 

^minds diseased. The unbelieving citizen, afraid to condemn 
ail this— afraid to deny a Rel gion and a stultifying Church 
based on Fear, afraid to stand alone, continues to pay hom- 
age to a Mythical Christ, a ridiculous Book and a detestable 
God — acting a lie — the slave of Emotion when he should be 
the disciple of Thought. Everywhere under the Cross of 

. Christ the Myth : deceit — injustice — barbarity — a lie! a nev- 
er-ending warfare between our ideas and our institutions, 
our acts and our consciences our faith and our reason, all 
ever and anon reacting on our minds which recoil in loath- 
ing, self-pity, contempt or despair. Nowhere the "religion" 
that is to be: devoid of a personal deity, based on morale 

progressively exalted by human experience promoting the 
welfare of the individual as much as that of the social ag- 

i^gregate, and replete with gentleness, good-will and joy. 

Free Thinkers of all lands! liberal-minded, reasoning, 
men and women of all races who love your brothers and sis- 
ters of the World ; rally round Truth's standard and proclaim 
her message in clarion tones till the blood-red mist of the 

-Christ- Myth fades from the fair abodes of Humankind and 

vthe beams of the Sun of Progress bathe reviving Earth in the 
Millennial splendor of a Golden Age its Truth-ostracizing 
creatures ne^'er vet, have seen. 



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